Abstract
The previous chapter has set the scene for discussing variation. This chapter will establish a set of yardsticks with which we can observe and compare variation. In medical practice an observer might gain the impression that one health professional will be more inclined to do one thing while another might prefer an alternative treatment. Such an observation will, in general, be difficult to interpret, simply because each medical encounter and each decision is unique and it will rarely be clear that the situations being compared are strictly comparable. Is the disease the same? Is the severity the same? Do the patients have similar expectations? Do the patients have similar desires? What about other exogenous constraints on the decision, such as the queue of patients outside the door, the availability of hospital provision or of drugs? And, of course, different professionals are trained by different people and they learn their craft by different experiences. Moreover, certain decisions may be rewarded differently from others, depending on the system of health care delivery.
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McPherson, K. (1990). Why Do Variations Occur?. In: Andersen, T.F., Mooney, G. (eds) The Challenges of Medical Practice Variations. Economic Issues in Health Care. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20781-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20781-7_2
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