Manual: Quality Circle in Public Health
The manual for introducing the concept of Quality Circle published under the UNFPA assisted IPD 5 have been borrowed from numerous books, ongoing project reports on ‘Quality Assurance Projects’ from all over the world, Internet search and expert’s opinions. Dr. Sinha don’t claim this manual to be original, but take credit in linking the concept of “Quality and Quality Circle” to public health. He had designed and refined the methodology and added my own innovation to make the subject interesting. I have introduced “Quality Quotes” incorporated after referring to numerous books – to keep readers motivated and drawing their attention towards the subject. The manual is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces the concept of quality and quality circle in public health. Chapter two describes the main characteristics of the quality circle and clarifies the concept in depth. Chapter three shows the probable structures, roles and responsibilities of the quality circle committee in a vertical health care system. Chapter four explains the process of organizing and implementing quality circles in public health institutions. Chapter five describes the tools to be used in quality circles for identifying and rating the problems, and chapter six explains the human factors involved in making the concept of quality circle viable in public health institutions. This was followed by the annex containing a format for organizing quality circle meetings and exercises to be executed in the meeting.