Softening the 'perverse' effects of quality assurance.
Interdisciplinary stress is a common, though unwelcome, by-product of quality assurance activities. The divergent lines of authority in a hospital are usually inadequate for dealing with interdisciplinary problems or with joint or contested matters, resulting in uneven treatment of those identified as having lapsed from accepted standards. If the purpose of quality assurance--improvement of patient care--is not to be perverted, current methods of dealing with identified problems must be revised.
D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005376:Financial Management / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States