Quality improvement's new focus yields quantitative results.
Health care quality improvement methods are now undergoing fundamental change. The emphasis is shifting from inspection of physician practices to continuous improvement of clinical processes validated by quantitative results. This change is long overdue. Traditional quality assurance methods that operate retrospectively and alienate physicians are not useful in a marketplace where quality and cost control are a matter of survival. Physician practices are only as good as the institutional processes they rely upon, and any quality improvement method that alienates physicians is doomed. Quality improvement is impossible without the support of physicians, because true improvement is driven and quantified by clinical data. Physicians are needed to interpret that data.
MediQual Systems, Inc., Westborough, MA.
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Brewster
D002985:Clinical Protocols; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States