QMAS Quality Management and Analysis system – national software to support GP contracts and payment by results
QPA: see Quality Practice Award.
QTD see Quality Team Development
QUALITATIVE DATA In medical literature the word can have two meanings: 1. Information characterizing a patient, or whatever unit under study, on a nominal scale, i.e. gender, hair colour, death or nationality. Characteristics on an ordinal scale could be called QUALITATIVE DATA, opposed to quantitative data on interval or ratio scales. 2. Within research, qualitative data are specific information about a person's social life or individual perception. The data are derived through in-depth interview, designed as a dialogue between researcher and informant.
QUALITY ASSESSMENT The measurement and judgement of the technical and interpersonal aspects of care.
QUALITY ASSURANCE (Syn: QA) Activities performed to determine the extent to which a phenomenon fulfils certain values and activities performed to assure changes in practice that will fulfil the highest or a predetermined level of values. In general/family practice defined as a process of planned activities based on performance review and enhancement with the aim of continually improving standards of patient care. WONCA definition is ‘ a process for planned activities based on performance review and enhancement with the aim of continually improving standards of patient care’.See also QUALITY DEVELOPMENT.
QUALITY CONTROL The supervision and control of all operations involved in a process, usually involving sampling and inspection, in order to detect and correct systematic or excessively random variations in quality. Lately introduced in the Health Care Sector in order to make better use of resources and improve the overall quality of care.
QUALITY CUBE: The six sides necessary to achieve total quality. These include access, best treatment, customer satisfaction, depth of care, efficiency and effectiveness, fairness
QUALITY DEVELOPMENT A continuous process of planned activities based on performance review and setting of explicit targets for good clinical practice with the aim of improving the actual quality of patient care.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT : a system for profound knowledge
QUALITY OF CARE A level of performance or accomplishment that characterizes the health care provided. Donabedian has, in relation to health care, classified this into measures of structure, process and outcome. See MEDICAL AUDIT.
QUALITY OF LIFE That which makes life worth living.
QUALITY PRACTICE AWARD QPA: The RCGP award following successful assessment of a practice that seeks to demonstrate that the whole practice provides a quality service
QUALITY TEAM DEVELOPMENT (QTD) RCGP with support from NHS executive is a programme of continuous assessment and accreditation of primary care teams
QUALITY: The degree of excellence, the relative value. Studies have suggested that the following aspects were seen by patients as most important in more than 50% of the studies that included them: "humaneness", "competence/accuracy", "patients' involvement in decisions", "time for care", "other aspects of availability/accessibility", "informativeness", "exploring patients' needs", "other aspects of relation and communication" and "availability of special services".
QUALY Acronym for Quality-Adjusted Life Years. An adjustment of life expectancy that allows for prevalence of activity-limitations in a group for which QUALY is calculated.
QUANTITATIVE DATA Data in numerical quantities, such as continuous measurements or counts.
QUASI-EXPERIMENT An observed manoeuvre, change, intervention or event that is not controlled by the investigator who by chance or deliberately gathered data before and after the event. The outcome of that QUASI-EXPERIMENT can be presented as evidence for an association. For instance: observing the health outcome of an earthquake, strike, uncontrolled introduction of a new therapy or health information through the media.
QUESTIONNAIRE A predetermined set of questions used to collect data, clinical, socio-economical, functional, etc. See INTERVIEW SCHEDULE.