title: Evaluation of physician competency and clinical performance in emergency medicine.
abstract: This article (1) provides the background history of assessing health care quality; (2) presents an overview of current interest and importance of measuring physician competency and performance, including requirements related to certifying bodies and those integral to pay-for-performance programs; (3) describes some of the current methods of evaluating the practice performance of emergency physicians, including peer review and use of health care quality measures; and (4) discusses the state of the literature as it pertains to health care quality and individual emergency physician performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.wbaker@bu.edu
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014481:United States