Quality Indicators in Family Practice: comparison between United Kingdom and Croatia

Abstract:

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is an instrument, or a method, used for quality assessment in family medicine in the UK. In Croatia, there are five instruments designed for same purpose. These include the “25 Indicators“, “the Agreement Methodology“, the Croatian version of EuroPEP international questionnaire for patient satisfaction assessment, parts of the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) – international questionnaire consultation quality index; and DRHTI index (for the assessment of the quality of work in family medicine). The comparison of the structure and content of the QOF and five Croatian instruments showed a high rate of similarity. All instruments use numerous indicators covering the same elements in the quality assessment. The used quality criteria follow a similar logic and, interestingly, both the UK and the Croatian instruments were developed at the same time. 

Key words:
Croatia; family practice; quality assurance, health care; quality indicators, health care; methods; United Kingdom