Supporting quality care in general practice: The collaboratives approach

Abstract

An important role of divisions of general practice is to support general practice to build capacity for the delivery of quality care. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the National Primary Care Collaboratives Program and the impact this quality improvement initiative has had on building practice capacity to achieve improvements in the management of chronic disease. "The Collaboratives" are an international phenomenon, which, over the last three years, has been implemented in Australia and has achieved impressive results consistent with the success documented in other countries. This paper explores the key elements contributing to the success of the program and discusses the opportunities that have strengthened the ability of participating divisions to support general practice to deliver quality care.