Medical error: Strategies for clinical governance

Authors

  • Isabel Santos Assistente graduada sénior no ACES Oeiras, USF Conde de Oeiras. Professora auxiliar convidada da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas.
  • Edmundo Sá Chefe de Serviço de Medicina Geral e Familiar. Assistente Convidado do Departamento de MGF da Faculdade Ciências Médicas-UNL.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v26i6.10803

Keywords:

Clinical Governance, Primary Health Care, Health Care Reform, Quality Improvement

Abstract

Clinical governance has been introduced, in the new model of health care organization in Portugal, as a process of quality improvement. This article describes the definition of this new term in the language of healthcare through its different components, examines how the concept of accountability, central to clinical governance, enlarges the notion of professional and legal responsibility and how the introduction of this new strategy of governance gives raise to new tensions, inside primary healthcare system. In spite of all benefits with this new strategy, the run for a blind accountability may also bring more fragmentation of primary health care. Therefore, this article is also a plea, now more than ever, to respect the main principles and values that are central to the identity of Family Medicine as discipline and speciality.

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Published

2010-11-01

How to Cite

Santos, I., & Sá, E. (2010). Medical error: Strategies for clinical governance. Portuguese Journal of Family Medicine and General Practice, 26(6), 606–12. https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v26i6.10803

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 6 (2010): Revista Portuguesa de Clínica Geral

Section

Dossier

License

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