gms | German Medical Science

Background: In 2009 we established a pilot programme to develop healthcare quality standards designed to help improve the quality of care. In the pilot year (2009/10), four quality standards were developed. By 2015, we have been asked to develop a library of 150 quality standards.

Context: A quality standard is a set of specific, concise statements that act as markers of high-quality, cost-effective patient care across a pathway or clinical area and are derived from evidence based guidelines. Each quality standard is developed by a group of topic experts, supported by technical analysts, over a period of 52 weeks. By December 2011, 14 standards had been published with a further 25 in development. If we are to deliver 150 quality standards by 2015, this is a significant increase in output with implications for planning and resources.

Description: Learning from the first three years of the programme will be summarised and an overview given of how development processes were improved and revised to enable the delivery of 150 quality standards in five years.

Lessons for guideline developers, adaptors, implementers, and/or users: The key issues developers of implementation tools need to consider when moving from a pilot process to ‘business as usual’ will be discussed, including how the development of such tools should be considered alongside that of the source guidelines.