PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - J Øvretveit
AU  - P Bate
AU  - P Cleary
AU  - S Cretin
AU  - D Gustafson
AU  - K McInnes
AU  - H McLeod
AU  - T Molfenter
AU  - P Plsek
AU  - G Robert
AU  - S Shortell
AU  - T Wilson
TI  - Quality collaboratives: lessons from research
AID  - 10.1136/qhc.11.4.345
DP  - 2002 Dec 01
TA  - Quality and Safety in Health Care
PG  - 345--351
VI  - 11
IP  - 4
4099  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/11/4/345.short
4100  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/11/4/345.full
SO  - Qual Saf Health Care2002 Dec 01; 11
AB  - Quality improvement collaboratives are increasingly being used in many countries to achieve rapid improvements in health care. However, there is little independent evidence that they are more cost effective than other methods, and little knowledge about how they could be made more effective. A number of systematic evaluations are being performed by researchers in North America, the UK, and Sweden. This paper presents the shared ideas from two meetings of these researchers. The evidence to date is that some collaboratives have stimulated improvements in patient care and organisational performance, but there are significant differences between collaboratives and teams. The researchers agreed on the possible reasons why some were less successful than others, and identified 10 challenges which organisers and teams need to address to achieve improvement. In the absence of more conclusive evidence, these guidelines are likely to be useful for collaborative organisers, teams and their managers and may also contribute to further research into collaboratives and the spread of innovations in health care.