From the very start of EQuiP in 1991, the development of tools to assess and improve quality was a core issue. Now that almost 20 years have passed, EQuiP has lived up to this obligation by contributing to the development of three instruments. The first was the EUROPEP (EUROpean Patients Evaluates Patient care), a patient satisfaction tool for Family Medicine (FM) developed in the years 1995–1998. In the years 2001–2004, EQuiP was involved in developing EPA (European Practice Assessment), a tool for assessing practice management in primary care practices. The latest instrument developed with EQuiP involvement is the International Family Practice Maturity Matrix (IFPMM). It is an organizational assessment tool aimed at stimulating practice-led quality improvement in primary care developed in the years 2007–2008. All these three instruments are used in a range of European countries and a few outside Europe.
EQuiP take pride in the fact that in 2009, EPA received the Gastein Health Award from the European Heath Forum.
However, over the years the quality improvement situation in FM in Europe has changed. From being an activity initiated and led by engaged individual professionals, schemes are now larger and often initiated and led by national and regional authorities. Over the years an abundance of instruments have been developed, so now the general practitioner (GP), clinic or local developer may fail to get an overview of the instruments available to measure and improve an aspect of quality in FM. Thus, insight into aspects of the tools, such as their area of use, the evidence base of their benefit and the resources needed to administer them may be hard to piece together.
Therefore, EQuiP has decided to develop an e-based comprehensive overview of tools available for FM use. The information is aimed at the end user—the clinic, GP or practice nurse.
However, EQuiPs emphasis on new developments has not ceased. Currently EQuiP is working on developing indicators for the psychosocial part of the consultation. The reason for that engagement is that some members feel that psychosocial aspects risk to be put aside as aspects more readily measurable gain attention through the introduction of more hard core measures of quality.
In 2009, EQuiP has taken on arranging a course in research in QI for young FM researchers. The first course took place in September 2009 in Tuusula, Finland.
This activity will continue, and in November 2010 a second course will take place in Turkey.
Connecting to the other WONCA-Europe networks and the WONCA-world WESIGS through common projects will be also be a priority in the years to come.
Anyone interested in EQuiPs work is welcome to visit our webpage www.equip.ch.