Variation and improving services: case studies and key questions

The Health Quality & Safety Commission’s Atlas of Healthcare Variation (the Atlas) is a starting point for analysing variation in a local area, and for developing service improvement activities to address variation. This guidance provides advice and examples of analysing variation and working towards reducing variability and improving care. It considers two case studies of variation derived from the Atlas and applies a generic framework to each in order to tease out the issues relevant to the local population, and to identify priorities for quality improvement.