title: Using decision analysis to communicate the importance of quality assurance studies.
abstract: Decision analysis, which structures the information used by physicians in making medical decisions, has the potential for being a valuable quality assurance (QA) tool. Probability trees derived from decision analysis studies can be used to make quantitative, graphic connections between QA data and adverse medical outcomes. This article provides four hypothetical examples of how decision analysis studies can help providers understand the relationship between QA data and patient welfare.
mesh_terms: D003663:Decision Trees; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care