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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2006, 08, 3 (pages: 7 - 12)

Methadone and Treatment Quality. The EFQM Excellence Model

Flego A.

Summary: In the technologically advanced world, providers of products and services have been dealing with the problem of quality, of how to assess its level, and of how to improve it continuously and systematically for many years. Therefore, this aspect cannot be eluded when scientifically planning and practically organizing a methadone treatment program. The treatment with methadone, although it is safe and relatively easier than others, is still at the centre of a great controversy. This is mainly due to the fact that the controversy lies in the basic reasons of the treatment with methadone rather than in the effectiveness of this treatment. The search for quality is a never-ending, dynamic process, and excellence itself is not definitive. It is a circular process that has to progressively improve the performances but also to defend itself from the natural entropy of not-managed situations (it has to continually introduce “negative entropy”). This process has to continually take into consideration innovations and new knowledges or ‘scientific evidence'.