Assessment of Medical Care for Children: Contrasts in Health Status

This, the third volume in a series, Contrasts in Health Status , from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, reports the results of field testing methodology set forth in volume 2, A Strategy for Evaluating Health Services . In addition to testing the methodology, it describes social, demographic, and health status profiles of the families and children studied and presents organizational, educational, and attitudinal information on the physicians providing services. Three tracer conditions are studied for their ability to highlight the medical care processes of prevention, screening, evaluation, management, and follow-up. These conditions are middle ear infection (and hearing loss), vision defects, and "iron deficiency" anemia. This tracer method was designed in 1969 to assess how various types of organizations delivered ambulatory services to a cross section of the population. The authors of the study are careful to note that the findings involve a single city (Washington, DC)