title: Quality assurance in transition.
abstract: This paper outlines the early approaches to quality assurance, and its transition from business to health care. It then describes the development of the more recent trends in quality assurance of Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. The paper then goes on to show how these approaches have been modified for application to peripheral health services in developing countries through the work of the Primary Health Care Operations Research Project and the Quality Assurance Project.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4820.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Blumenfeld
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003906:Developing Countries; D004526:Efficiency; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011340:Problem Solving; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends*; D017749:Total Quality Management