title: Quality assurance and risk management in small and rural hospitals: the roles of trustees, administration, and medical staff.
abstract: Small and rural hospitals have unique considerations that affect their approach to quality assurance (QA) and risk management (RM). These concerns include proportionately high fixed costs, small patient loads that limit their ability to balance profits and losses from Medicare patients, small medical staffs that limit their ability to provide peer review, and the general increase in malpractice litigation. QA and RM programs are critical to the survival of these hospitals, but they should be integrated as much as possible with other hospital activities.
mesh_terms: D005376:Financial Management; D006075:Governing Board / Q000458:organization & administration; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006743:Hospital Bed Capacity, under 100; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012308:Risk Management; D012380:Role; D014481:United States