Monitoring the Quality of Health Care: Issues and Scientific Approaches

List of Tables. List of Figures. About the Authors. Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I: Issues. 1. Health Care: An Industry in Transition. 2. The Historical Roots of Health Care Oversight: Cost Containment. 3. Basic Definitions and Criteria for the Management and Assurance of Quality in Health Care. 4. Complexities that Health Care Oversight Must Take into Account. 5. The Necessity for Multifaceted Quality Management. 6. Quality Improvement: Professional Initiatives. 7. Quality Oversight in Health Care Institutions: Monitors and Checklists. 8. Quality Oversight: Use of Administrative Data Bases. 9. Quality Oversight: Medical Record Review. 10. Quality Oversight: Patient Satisfaction Surveys. 11. Quality Accountability: External Oversight. 12. Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement. 13. Approaches to Valid Quality Assistance. Part II: Scientific Approaches. 14. Measuring the Quality of Hospital Care: The Importance of Identifying Principal Risk Factors for Adverse Health Events and Using Risk Adjustment in Measures of Quality. 15. Assessing a Quality Improvement Program: Study Design, Causal Specification and Analysis. 16. Identifying the Roots Causes or Patterns of Adverse Health Events: Statistical Methods. 17. Conclusion: What Must Be Done. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.