Includes bibliographical references and index.

Quality -- What is quality in health and social care? -- Why quality? -- Importance for patients and service users -- Importance for staff -- Importance for reducing costs -- Implications of poor quality in a hospital -- Approaches to defining quality -- Transcendent -- Product-based -- Manufacturing-based -- Consumer-based -- Value-based -- Hybrid definitions -- Defining quality in health and social care -- Quality in primary care -- Dimensions of quality: identifying the needs of service users and other stakeholders -- Quality for users of an artificial limb centre -- Dimensions of quality for carers -- What customers want -- Perceptions and expectations -- Moments of truth -- Quality and equity -- Quality and cost -- The prevention, appraisal, failure (PAF) model -- Missing reports in outpatients -- Bridging the quality gap -- Quality management -- Quality control, assurance and management -- Total quality management (TQM) -- Oakland's model -- Core concepts of TQM -- Quality initiatives in health and social care -- The NHS Plan -- Clinical Governance -- Best Value -- Modernising Social Services -- A Quality Strategy for Social Care -- Investors in People -- Charter Mark -- The philosophies of Deming, Juran and Crosby -- W. Edwards Deming -- Joseph Juran -- Philip Crosby -- The three gurus compared -- Quality standards and quality systems -- Setting service standards -- What is a standard? -- Hard and soft standards -- Good practice in developing standards -- Quality standards at Centrepoint.

Many organizations in health and social care are striving to implement the ideas of organizational excellence, performance measurement and process improvement, in the context of a large number of government initiatives including the NHS Plan, Best Value, Clinical Governance and Quality Protects. This book provides a clear explanation of the whole area and includes a wide variety of case studies and examples within health and social care, including the Voluntary Sector." "The book gives extensive guidance on the use of the Excellence Model, but it does much more than just describe how to use the Model. It provides practical guidance on how to deliver services focused on patients and service users, on how organizations can lead, motivate and involve their staff, on partnerships and user involvement, and on the vital area of process improvement. There is also a major section on performance measurement.