title: Health care quality and safety issues.
abstract: Our health-care system is burdened with high costs, health-care disparities, overtreatment, undertreatment, high error rates, and fraud and abuse. At the same time, the United States has achieved spectacular medical advances using the latest technology. As a result, health-care quality measurement, publicly reported patient safety and quality indicators, and evaluation of patients' experience of care are watchwords of a new era of accountability for health-care professionals and organizations. The health-care industry is subject to increasing regulation, private sector challenges, and public demand to make significant improvements in all three components of the quality triad: structure, process, and outcome. This article examines regulatory initiatives and industry trends pertaining to patient safety and quality measurement and concludes with specific suggestions for the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology.
authors: The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA. Becky.Cornett@osumc.edu
authors: Becky Sutherland
authors: BS
authors: Cornett