Owning or managing a general practice comes with significant responsibility.
On any given day, you’re solving problems, managing finances, supporting your team, responding to patients, resolving conflicts and trying to keep the practice moving forward. Often, you’re doing all of this while navigating an environment that continues to become more complex.
Taking on that responsibility is one of the reasons your practice can accomplish as much as it does. You do it because you care.
But there are inevitably times when everything seems to hit at once – priorities compete, the to-do list grows – and you find yourself stretched too thin.
Of course, the natural response is often to work faster and go harder but I’m not convinced that’s the answer.
At QPA, we’ve found that when things become overwhelming, the best thing to do is to ask, “What does this pressure tell us about the way we work?” Often, the answer isn’t that people need to do more – it’s that we need better systems.
Focus on what matters
At QPA, we manage complexity in two important ways.
The first is focus. We have deliberately chosen to concentrate solely on general practice accreditation. It allows us to commit ourselves to what we know best and to maintain a deep understanding of the realities of the practices we work with.
The second is through systems. Good systems create clarity around what needs to happen, who is responsible and how we know it has been done. They reduce reliance on individuals carrying processes and knowledge in their heads. And they allow an organisation to monitor performance while staying aligned with its purpose and values.
The same principles apply within general practice.
Make the Standards work for you
Accreditation can offer practices much more than a certificate.
More than compliance, the Standards provide a framework for putting good systems in place across your practice. When those systems become part of everyday operations, accreditation stops being something you prepare for every few years and becomes part of how you run your business, and that has practical benefits.
Clear and consistent systems can reduce risk, make responsibilities clearer, improve efficiency and give owners and managers greater confidence that important things are happening as they should – without having to personally oversee everything.
Put simply: Good systems don’t just help you meet the Standards. They help you run a better practice.
As we move toward the 6th edition Standards, that’s the real opportunity I’d encourage practices to consider.
Rather than asking only, “What do we need to do to meet the Standards?”, the more valuable question is: “How can we use the Standards to make our practice work better?”
At QPA, that’s the conversation we have with practices. Accreditation done properly should provide confidence that you’re meeting the Standards every day, while also helping you build a stronger, more efficient and more sustainable practice.
Because general practice may never be easy. But with the right systems in place, it need not be overwhelming.
Dr Paul Mara
Managing Director, Quality Practice Accreditation