The European Society for Quality and Safety in Family Practice (EQuiP)
WONCA Europe’s network for quality improvement and patient safety
By Ulrik Bak Kirk, EQuiP Manager
The aim of EQuiP is to contribute to the achievement of high levels of quality and safety of care for patients in general practice in all European countries. EQuiP will endeavour to achieve this by offering a structure for collaboration and exchange of knowledge, expertise and methodology – and by initiating international projects within quality and patient safety.
Quality improvement and patient safety
EQuiP defines quality development for general practice as a continuous process of planned activities based on critical performance review and setting of explicit targets for good clinical practice with the aim of improving the actual quality of patient care. The members of EQuiP assume that quality development should be the responsibility of the medical profession.
Research and knowledge transfer
EQuiP hosts 36 delegates from 25 European countries, personally responsible for at least 444 PubMed-indexed articles; research and knowledge transfer are integral parts of EQuiP's activities. EQuiPs comprises 62 individual members and 16 institutional members. You can become a member right now and enjoy 50% reduction on EQuiP conference fees and more. The next EQuiP event is the conference 'Call me a doctor!' 26-27 January 2021 in Utrecht.
8 Working groups
The EQuiP network has 8 active working groups of experts within the following fields:
- Digital Health led by U Bak Kirk (Denmark) & I Kunnamo (Finland).
- Equity led by H Falcoff (France).
- Measuring Quality & Indicators led by E Arvidsson (Sweden).
- Meso Level Quality led by H Falcoff (France).
- Patient Safety & Professional Health led by I Dupie (France) & A Rochfort (Ireland).
- Person-Centered Primary Care led by J van Lieshout (the Netherlands).
- Structured Small Group Work in Primary Care led by A Rohrbasser (Switzerland).
- Teaching Quality led by Z Ožvačić (Croatia).
4 internationally standardized and validated instruments
EUROPEP: 23-item internationally standardized measure of patient evaluations of general practice care. An international consortium of researchers and general practitioners, linked to EQuiP, jointly developed the instrument. Read more here.
The European Practice Assessment (EPA): Instrument for assessing practice management in primary care. It was developed by an international group of researchers, closely linked to EQuiP, and the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany. Read more here.
The International Family Practice Maturity Matrix (IFPMM): Organisational assessment tool aimed at stimulating practice-led quality improvement in primary care. Read much more in chapter 77 the World Book of Family Medicine: European Edition 2015.
Patient Empowerment in Chronic Conditions - WONCA Europe (PECC-WE): EQuiP won the bid the for the WONCA Europe Anniversary Research Fund project in 2012, which led to the development of an online course on Motivational Interviewing as well as scientific outputs.
Outputs
1,065 Committed Facebook group members in 2020
223 Working group activities from 2011-2019
56 Meetings held and conferences conducted
31 Interactive newsletters published since 2013
29 Years of service improving quality and safety of care
25 European countries represented by 36 delegates
16 Anniversary articles published since 2016
11 International Summer Schools since 2009
7 Position papers & policy statements since 2016
1 European Teaching Agenda on Quality and Safety in 2019
Online resource
Website: https://equip.woncaeurope.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EQuiP.WONCA
ePDFs, including slides, photos etc.: https://equip.woncaeurope.org/meetings-2011-2019