title: Healthcare quality indicators--a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on quality model development, validation and limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The systematic literature review used online journal indexes between January 1995 and April 2010. International studies focusing on multiple functional domains and those in which development methods were selected. Two reviewers assessed all studies and 18 were shortlisted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Literature reviews, peer reviews, questionnaires and expert panels are the most frequently used model development methods. Expert judges were widely used to validate the models. The most important limitation was that key indicators were missing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Existing healthcare quality models are not comprehensive and there is no consensus on targets, clinical areas or diseases.
authors.affiliation: Middle East Technical University Informatics Institute, Orta Dogu Teknik Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özkan
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Yildiz
authors.forename: Onur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Demirors
mesh_terms: D017146:Models, Organizational; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care
keywords: Clinical indicators; Healthcare quality; Measurement; Quality models