Primary Medical Care Provider
Accreditation
The RCGP is leading an initiative to
develop and pilot Primary Medical Care Provider Accreditation
(PMCPA) – a quality model for primary medical care providers
in England.
PMCPA is a criteria and evidence-based
initiative. The pilot is designed to support and monitor the
development of quality primary care through a scheme which is
voluntary, patient-focused, developmental and professionally led
and which encourages continuous quality improvement.
What are
the PMCPA pilot criteria?
PMCPA accreditation will consist of:
1. A compulsory
set of 30 core criteria representative of a safe and acceptable
provider
2. A series of
six domains that are made up of 82 developmental criteria. The
developmental criteria enable providers to work towards improving
the quality of care they provide in specific areas
The six PMCPA domains are as follows:
Domain 1
Health Inequalities and Health Promotion
Domain 2
Provider Management
Domain 3
Premises, Records, Equipment and Medicines Management
Domain 4
Provider Teams
Domain 5
Learning Organisation
Domain 6
Patient Experience / Involvement
The criteria have been based and refined from
the RCGP Quality Team Development tool (QTD).
What is
involved in the PMCPA pilot?
The RCGP has recruited 34 primary care
providers that have been selected from four Primary Care Trusts
(PCT) across England in order to give a demographically
representative sample for the pilot scheme. The project will run
between June and November 2008. Each provider will be required to
self-assess their provision of services and submit evidence against
the pilot core and developmental criteria. This will be followed by
a multidisciplinary accreditation visit and assessment
report/feedback. This will culminate in the production of a Final
Assessor Report, which will include a quality improvement plan that
will help providers aspire to continuous quality improvement in the
delivery of patient care and services. Throughout the pilot,
quality assurance will be maintained by the RCGP.
The project is led by Professor Nigel Sparrow,
Chair of the RCGP Professional Development Board.
A Stakeholder Committee has also been
established to give strategic direction, ensure accountability and
monitor the ongoing work. The committee is chaired by Professor
Steve Field, Chairman of the RCGP and has representation from the
Department of Health, General Practitioners Committee of the
British Medical Association, General Medical Council, Healthcare
Commission, Royal College of Nurses, NHS Confederation Primary Care
Trusts, Institute for Healthcare Management and the National
Patient Safety Agency.
Partnership
arrangement with the National Primary Care Research and Development
Centre
The RCGP has worked in partnership with the
National Primary Care Research and Development Centre (NPCRDC) at
the University of Manchester, with respect to the selection of
practices, criteria refinement and evaluation. The NPCRDC is also
piloting and evaluating the impact of a small number of clinical
indicators and this work will be led by Professor Helen Lester.
Further
information
Further detail on how the accreditation scheme
has been developed and what it will look like is available in
the RCGP
News June 2008 article by Professor Helen Lester and Dr Stephen
Campbell (PhD).
Contact us for more information:
PMCPA@rcgp.org.uk