title: Quality assurance of pre-operative assessment--a review of quality assurance activities related to pre-operative assessment in nine hospitals in The Netherlands.
abstract: Pre-operative assessment of patients for surgery is one of the most prevalent topics for quality assurance by peer-review in Dutch hospitals. This article describes the experiences with pre-operative assessment in nine hospitals. It is discussed why preoperative assessment is performed, what tests are performed (chest X-ray, ECG, laboratory tests), and how the pre-operative assessment procedure is organized. Hospital protocols are compared with literature findings and audit studies from two hospitals show the actual compliance to the protocols. It is concluded that peer-review committees and audit studies play a major part in the assurance of the quality of preoperative assessment.
authors.affiliation: CBO-National Organization for Quality Assurance in Hospitals, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Klazinga
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Helsloot
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000592:standards*; D006748:Hospital Departments / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D009426:Netherlands; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*