Re-engineering for service quality: The case of Leicester Royal Infirmary

Innovation and the quest for improved service quality have featured strongly in UK health care over the past decade. The creation of the internal market, the Patients Charter, the R&D strategy for a knowledge-based health service, and the Calman reforms to medical training and education, are the driving forces behind improved patient care and service delivery which will preoccupy health care at least until the millennium. In the UK, innovating trusts have adopted quality improvement programmes ranging in scope and scale from total quality management to business process re-engineering and patient-focused care as well as culture change programmes. This paper presents a micro case study of a 'near patient' routine diagnostic testing centre, servicing outpatient clinics and illustrating the integration of business process redesign with consequent significant improvements in cost, quality, service and speed.