title: Health care quality assurance: tracer analysis in quality assessment of ambulatory care provided by two out patient teaching clinics.
abstract: Population-based assessment of medical care provides information on the quality of care generated by a health care facility over a range of services. Patient chart review was undertaken via "tracer analysis" at two ambulatory care teaching clinics to obtain a measure of the clinical services provided by chiropractic interns for a range of diagnoses. The assessment indicated that chiropractic interns perform best when rendering care for spinal conditions. However, a greater emphasis on development of clinical problem-solving skills versus the use of routine standardized examination procedures would improve the quality of care across a broader spectrum of conditions encountered within the patient base of the clinics. Improved documentation of concurrent medical care or medical referral is warranted in instances of systemic comorbidity.
authors.affiliation: Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, Bournemouth, England.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bohm
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000592:standards*; D002684:Chiropractic / Q000592:standards*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards; D008485:Medical Audit; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care