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For most people, the main point of access to the health system is through primary health care (PHC). The fundamental premise of primary health care is that all people, everywhere, have the right to receive the appropriate care in their community. Primary health care attends to the majority of a person’s health needs throughout their lifetime, including physical, mental and social wellbeing. PHC is people-centred rather than disease-centred. It is a whole-of-society approach that includes health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.

Primary health care and continuous quality improvement: An evidence-based guide provides an accessible contemporary guide on implementing continuous quality improvement (CQI) in PHC settings. The authors draw together two decades of practical experience and established leadership in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in Australia to provide guidance for health services and their staff, policymakers, researchers, funders and support organisations in an international context.

Primary health care and continuous quality improvement provides an in-depth understanding of how CQI can be used to strengthen health systems by:

- identifying core concepts underpinning CQI in PHC and how CQI can improve health care quality, health equity and population health;
- explaining how CQI data is used in a comprehensive approach to PHC to measure quality, and how data is generated and used for improving care;
- describing CQI tools and techniques used by PHC teams;
- offering guidance in interpreting data and addressing variation in care quality;
- providing case studies in maternal health, children’s health, mental health and other areas, to describe the application of CQI to improve clinical care;
- guiding practitioners on how to collaborate and build data systems for CQI, and strengthen links between communities and PHC services.

Continuous quality improvement is everybody’s business, and Primary health care and continuous quality improvement explains the strategic use of CQI at different levels of the health system and across sectors to achieve and sustain large-scale health improvement.

Alison Laycock is a research fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health, University of Õ¬Äе¼º½. Alison has worked collaboratively with community, research and health service partners to develop quality improvement tools and training resources, and guides for health promotion practice and health research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care settings.

Lynette O’Donoghue is a proud Yankunytjatjara and Warumungu-Warlpiri woman, and a research fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health, University of Õ¬Äе¼º½. She has contributed significantly to Indigenous leadership of the NHMRC-funded Centre for Research Excellence in Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity, advocating meaningful engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and services in the design, implementation and translation of research activities.

Ross Bailie is professor of rural health with the University of Õ¬Äе¼º½ School of Public Health and the University Centre for Rural Health, based in Lismore, Northern NSW. Ross’s research has been centred on increasing availability of information for policy and service planning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and for rural and remote communities.

Epigraph
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword
Õ¬Äе¼º½ the authors
Acknowledgements
Use of terms
How to use this book
List of abbreviations
Part I Core concepts in primary health care and continuous quality improvement 
1. Primary health care 
2. Continuous quality improvement
3. Adapting continuous quality improvement for primary health care
Part II Continuous quality improvement data, tools and processes for primary health care
4. Evidence to guide and improve care 
5. Practical tools for CQI in primary health care
6. Using CQI cycles, and understanding and presenting data
7. Facilitating CQI
8. Embedding a culture of CQI
Part II Summary
Part III Using CQI to improve primary health care
9. The Audit and Best Practice for Chronic Disease CQI research program
10. Improving diabetes care
11. Improving preventive health care
12. Improving child health
13. Improving maternal health care
14. Developing an audit tool to improve youth health care – a case study
15. Improving mental health and wellbeing care
16. Improving cardiovascular health care 
17. Improving care for acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease
18. Improving the quality of care for sexually transmissible infections
19. Improving eye health care
Part III Summary
Part IV Strengthening systems for PHC equity 
20. Multi-level systems approaches
21. Centralising respect, equity and justice in health research 
22. Learning from two decades of CQI research in Indigenous PHC 
Part IV Summary: future directions and emerging challenges 
Index