title: [Quality management in health care - continuous improvement of processes and outcomes].
abstract: What is quality, what is quality management? Who is responsible for quality management in a hospital? Which tools, communication instruments and which instruments for feed back are necessary for institutions to control its tasks in a multi-disciplinary environment? Are there various requirements concerning quality management systems in different hospitals or departments? Which tools of quality management are used in German anaesthesia and intensive care departments? This paper gives an introduction to quality management systems in hospitals and an overview of current models in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Anästhesiologie und Intensivtherapie, Universität Rostock. dierk.vagts@medizin.uni-rostock.de
authors.forename: Dierk A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Vagts
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dahmen
mesh_terms: D000761:Anesthesia Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005858:Germany; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*