title: The components of hospital quality: a nursing perspective.
abstract: The first stage of a larger investigation intended to define objective and standardized measures of the quality of care provided by hospitals included the conduct of focus groups with registered nurses, eliciting their opinions as to the merit of a number of potential indicators of hospital quality. The registered nurses in the focus groups settled on the ratio of registered nurses to beds, the percentage of board-certified physicians, the presence of discharge planning services, service mix, the number of technological services, and Council on Teaching Hospitals membership as the best indicators of high-quality care delivery.
authors.affiliation: National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Rudolph
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002568:Certification; D002641:Chicago; D017144:Focus Groups; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000145:classification*; D012954:Societies, Hospital