As innovations are constantly being developed within health care, it can be difficult both to select appropriate new practices and technologies and to successfully adopt them within complex organizations. It is necessary to understand the consequences of introducing change, how to best implement new procedures and techniques, how to evaluate success and to improve the quality of patient care. This comprehensive guide allows you to do just that.

 Improving Patient Care, 2nd edition provides a structure for professionals and change agents to implement better practices in health care. It helps health professionals, managers, policy makers and researchers to assess new techniques and select and implement change in their organizations. This new edition includes recent evidence and further coverage on patient safety and patient centred strategies for change.  

 Written by an international expert author team, Improving Patient Care is an established standard text for postgraduate students of health policy, health services and health management. The strong author team are global professors involved in managing research and development in the field of quality improvement, evidence-based practice and guidelines, quality assessment and indicators to improve patient outcomes through receiving appropriate healthcare.

Richard Grol, Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, The Netherlands
Michel Wensing, Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, The Netherlands
Martin Eccles, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
David Davis, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington DC, USA, Washington DC, USA, USA

List of contributors

Introduction Richard Grol

Part I Principles of implementation of change

1 Implementation of change in healthcare: a complex problem 
Richard Grol, Michel Wensing

2 Theories on implementation of change in healthcare
Richard Grol, Michel Wensing, Marije Bosch, Marlies Hulscher, Martin Eccles

3 Effective implementation of change in healthcare: a systematic approach
Richard Grol, Michel Wensing

4 Planning and organizing the change process 
Richard Grol, Mariëlle Ouwens, Hub Wollersheim, Wouter Keijser

Part II Guidelines and innovations

5 Characteristics of successful innovations
Richard Grol, Michel Wensing

6 Clinical practice guidelines as a tool for improving patient care 
Jako Burgers, Mirrian Smolders, Trudy van der Weijden, Dave Davis, Richard Grol

Part III Assessment of performance
 
7 Quality and safety of care: the role of indicators 
Jozé Braspenning, Rosella Hermens, Hilly Calsbeek, Gert Westert, Stephen Campbell, Richard Grol

Part IV Problem analysis

8 Determinants of change
Michel Wensing, Marije Bosch, Richard Grol

9 Methods to identify determinants of change in healthcare 
Michel Wensing, Marije Bosch, Richard Grol

Part V Strategies for change
 
10 Development and selection of strategies for improving patient care 
Richard Grol, Marije Bosch, Michel Wensing

11 Dissemination of innovations 
Richard Grol, Michel Wensing

12 Educational strategies
Michel Wensing, Cornelia Fluit, Richard Grol

13 Feedback and reminders 
Trudy van der Weijden, Michel Wensing, Martin Eccles, Richard Grol

14 Patient-focused strategies
Marjan Faber, Trudy van der Weijden, Glyn Elwyn, Michel Wensing, Richard Grol

15 Organizational strategies 
Michel Wensing, Miranda Laurant, Mariëlle Ouwens, Hub Wollersheim

16 Patient safety and risk prevention 
Marieke Zegers, Hub Wollersheim, Michel Wensing, Charles Vincent, Richard Grol

17 Economic and policy strategies
Michel Wensing, Martin Eccles, Richard Grol

18 Multifaceted strategies
Marlies Hulscher, Michel Wensing, Richard Grol

Part VI Organisation and evaluation

19 Planning of the implementation process 
Richard Grol, Mariëlle Ouwens

20 Impact of implementation strategies: controlled studies
Trudy van der Weijden, Martin Eccles, Jeremy Grimshaw, Richard Grol

21 Observational evaluation 
Michel Wensing, Richard Grol

22 Process evaluation 
Marlies Hulscher, Miranda Laurant, Richard Grol

23 Economic evaluation
Johan L. Severens, Ties Hoomans, Eddy Adang, Michel Wensing

Index