United Kingdom Improvement Foundation (UK IF)
The Improvement Foundation (Australia) Ltd was initially established as a subsidiary company of the Improvement Foundation based in the United Kingdom (UK IF); an internationally renowned quality improvement organisation.
The UK IF, formerly known as the National Primary Care Development Team, was launched in 2000 and has delivered numerous programs within the UK and provided support in developing Collaborative programs in Australia and Canada. The UK IF organisation has ceased to trade and therefore IF Australia is no longer a subsidiary of UK IF.
- Long Term Conditions National Primary Care Collaborative
- Mental Health Collaborative
- Breakthrough Program - Raising Boys' Achievements
- Practice Based Commissioning
- Healthy Communities Collaborative
- Leadership for Quality Improvement Program
- Scottish Primary Care Collaborative (SPCC)
- Saskatchewan Primary Care Collaborative
Last Updated 09 November 2011
What is the Model for Improvement?
The Model for Improvement provides a framework for developing, testing and implementing changes. It helps to break down a change effort into small, manageable chunks which are then tested to ensure that things are improving and that no effort is wasted. It is always worth remembering that while every improvement is certainly a change, every change is not an improvement.
The Model for Improvement consists of two equal parts; the first part, the “thinking part”, consists of three fundamental questions to guide improvement work:
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- How will we know that a change is an improvement?
- What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?
For more information about the Model for Improvement visit: http://apcc.org.au/about_the_APCC/the_model_for_improvement/
What is a Collaborative program?
A Collaborative is an improvement method that relies on the distribution and adaptation of existing knowledge to multiple settings, to achieve a common aim. Healthcare Collaboratives are built on a tried and tested method, developed in the USA , which has been applied to a wide range of management challenges. It was originally applied to healthcare systems by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in the USA, and has been adopted in other countries. A Collaborative is not a research project, a set of conferences or a passive exercise. A Collaborative is about actually doing and improving.
What is the Collaborative Methodology?
Adapted from the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology, in the Australian context, the Collaborative methodology is used as a framework for the APCC Program. This methodology has been applied to a wide range of management challenges. Originally applied to healthcare systems in the USA, it has since been adopted in other countries, including the UK, Scotland, Canada and New Zealand.
The Collaborative methodology is proven to be highly effective in achieving large scale systems change and demonstrating measurable outcomes. It provides a generic quality improvement model that can be applied to achieve incremental, rapid and locally relevant improvements across a broad range of clinical and practice business issues.