Appleby, J., Raleigh, V., Frosini, F., Bevan, F., Gao, H., & Lyscom, T. (2011). Variations in health care: The good, the bad and the inexplicable. The King’s Fund. Retrieved from http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/healthcare_variation.html.

“Variations in health care in the NHS are a persistent and ubiquitous problem. But which variations are acceptable or warranted – for example, variations driven by clinical need and informed patient choice – and which are not? The important question is how to promote ‘good’ variation and minimise ‘bad’ variation.

Variations in health care: The good, the bad and the inexplicable explores the possible causes of variation, shows the different ways in which variations can be measured, and analyses variations by PCT in rates of elective hospital admissions for selected procedures.

The causes of variation are complex and inter-related – they may be affected by, for example, differences in geographical patterns of illness, differences in clinicians’ behaviour, the effects of incentives in the financing of health care. These causes are mapped and discussed.”