title: [Quality control program in a group of Spanish public hospitals (1993-2001)].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The INSALUD (National Healthcare Institute) is a public institution that manages the provision of health services for 15 million Spanish people. INSALUD developed a quality control program for specialist care, which involved its 80 hospitals.
  To promote leadership among the managers of quality assurance programs, to involve in the improvement of quality all the employees of the organization and to set out the Institution's following strategic outlines: to direct the services towards the needs of the population, to improve the quality and effectiveness of the care procedures, to minimize risks and to improve the information system.
  The Management Contract, i.e. the main tool of specialist care management, included a Quality Control Program common to all the hospitals involved. The Program was divided in the following three parts: common improvement goals, monitoring of indicators and guidelines of the organization.
  All the hospitals involved introduced their own quality assurance program which incorporated the Institution's Quality Control Program. The majority of the objectives assessed showed a continuous improvement of the outcome. The experience of the 1993-2001 INSALUD Quality program can prove to be very useful for the new Healthcare Services of the Autonomous Communities resulting from the decentralization of the healthcare provision of services in Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández Martín
authors.forename: Rojo Ana
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sáinz
mesh_terms: D006302:Health Services Research; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards*; D007857:Leadership; D008511:Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D013030:Spain; D013038:Specialization; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*