Management Quality Achieving Excellence in Physiotherapy Service Provision

Jones R.¹, Jenkins F.², Mueller J.³, Boyce R.⁴, Diener I.⁵

¹East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, Therapy Services, Eastbourne, United Kingdom, ²Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Wales, United Kingdom, ³District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand, ⁴University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia, ⁵Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Learning objectives:

1. To understand key concepts of management quality including review and evaluation, how this can be implemented and to consider its impact on provision of excellent physiotherapy services. 2. To learn and share knowledge and experience from three WCPT regions around the World (similarities and differences) and facilitate active audience participation and views on the relationship between leadership/management and clinical practice. To understand the benefits of collaborative working. 3. To encourage innovative thinking and action planning for symposium participants to take back to their own work places. 

Description:

If quality and excellence are to be at the heart of service provision and the goals which physiotherapy managers and clinicians strive to achieve for their services, it is essential to be able to measure and evaluate performance in order to determine whether the identified criteria for quality and excellence are being met and whether there is alignment between performance and the strategy, vision, objectives and desired outcomes.

We introduce a Management Quality Matrix designed by Robert Jones and Fiona Jenkins for the purpose of evaluating a wide range of performance parameters. How management quality can be measured through metrics and review, how we can learn from this and how patient care can be improved through providing an evidence base for management of high quality services and the evidence base for clinical service provision will be discussed by the presenters. Major themes such as; leadership, Clinical Governance, evidence based practice, collaborative working and communication will be considered. The Evaluation Matrix was developed in the context of management quality and strategy drawing on a wide range of concepts with a view to ensuring the provision of quality clinical services as well as achieving high quality leadership and management. It comprises fifteen standards, each incorporating several components for management quality impacting on physiotherapy services.

Robert will introduce the symposium team and present an overview of the topic introducing concepts of management quality and its relationship to patient care, measurement, delegation, integration, communication, participation and staff development.

Fiona will introduce the Management Quality Evaluation Matrix explaining how this can be used to measure and achieve excellence in physiotherapy provision and the management and leadership of services. Fiona will discuss standards involved in management quality.

Janice Mueller will present aspects of Clinical Governance and how leadership and evaluation are important to management quality and how this supports excellence in physiotherapy practice.

Ina Diener will explore concepts of evidence-based practice, the importance of managing the process as part of management quality and how leadership and management of this is an essential element of excellence in physiotherapy.

Rosalie Boyce will conclude the presentations with a discussion of communication issues and the importance of collaborative working in the context of management quality, including her analysis of how structure influences function and quality of services.

The symposium team will show how systematic review and evaluation enables physiotherapy managers, leaders and clinicians, not simply to engage in 'box ticking' exercises, but rather to measure using metrics indicative of progress towards value, responsiveness and excellence for patients. Evaluation - and learning from this - facilitates best possible managerial and clinical outcomes, effectiveness, efficiency and optimal resource use, whilst acknowledging and using National targets (where these exist) without merely being subservient to them. Targets are not goals in themselves; value for the patient is the goal.

Bringing their International perspectives - from three continents - the speakers will demonstrate that developing strategy and measuring performance requires engagement at all levels throughout the service, incorporating discussion of some important related questions:

• Is everyone in the team 'pulling' in the same direction?
• Does the direction benefit the patient?
• Are we measuring so that we know whether we are improving?
• Do staff have the training, motivation and respect to provide value and bring about improvement?
• Are tensions around fear of change recognised and managed?
• Are problems/mistakes treated as opportunities to improve?

Fiona Jenkins will facilitate discussion between delegates and speakers and Robert Jones will summarise and draw the symposium to its conclusion.

Implications / Conclusions:

An important implication is that there is an essential link between management quality - its evaluation and management - and provision of ´best´ qualtiy physiotherapy services for our patients and service users.

Management quality impacts on all aspects of physiotherapy practice from the development of the ´evidence base´ and outcome measurement to Clinical Goverance, information management and communication, developing new and different ways of working, through to staff deployment, development and resource use.

It is concluded that management quality is essential to the provision of quality physiotherapy services.

Keywords:

Physiotherapy Management; Quality; Physiotherapy Excellence

Funding acknowledgements:

None

Relevance to WCPT and expected audience:

The expected audience would be physiotherapy managers and clinicians, educators and researchers who would be invited to participate in the discussion section of the symposium. The symposium will comprise International aspects of management quality and its impact on physiotherapy services worldwide. It is important that management and leadership issues are given a focus and discussed in the International setting.

Target audience:

Physiotherapy managers, clinicians, educators and researchers.

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