What's ahead on quality: the managed care perspective.
Without question, the most important processes occurring in managed care that can be expected to affect quality are accreditation and the effort to obtain and compare uniform information on quality of care across health care organizations, in short, to create "report cards." For both processes, 1993 was an extremely productive year, and 1994 promises to be even more so. These two processes fit hand-in-glove--one is designed to determine that managed care organizations are equipped to serve the public and to implement better health care programs, while the other is designed to help them understand and improve their own performance. Although, in the short run, managed care organizations may view both these efforts as additional costs, in the long run, both should lead to a better industry and to better care for the public.
Harvard Community Health Plan, Brookline, MA.
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Schoenbaum
D000068:Accreditation; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States