Quality assurance in health care : the official journal of the International Society for Quality Assurance in Health Care / ISQA
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In short, quality assurance in UK healthcare has developed since the mid-1980s driven by a series of national policy initiatives in the NHS, by increasing determination of the clinical professions to maintain standards, and by a general consumer movement to know more about public and professional services. Much has been achieved but there remains substantial debate about quality assurance leadership, coordination, funding and evaluation--or even what to call it.
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Qual Assur Health Care · Jan 1991
ReviewHigh consumers of health care in emergency units: how to improve their quality of care.
Patients with non-urgent complaints and/or who attend frequently account for a substantial portion of the visits to emergency units. These patients usually require other types of care than that provided by a highly specialized emergency department (ED). ⋯ A long-term follow-up showed that without any intervention, frequent ED users are a high-risk group as regards morbidity and mortality, especially with respect to suicide. Prevention with comprehensive and continuous treatment programmes should therefore be planned when a tendency is noted for patients to attend the ED frequently.
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The problem of malpractice suits and patient complaints is frequently mentioned in discussions concerning the quality of health care. The present paper reviews the following aspects of this problem: the magnitude of the problem, the categories of cases, insurance and legal aspects, effects on medical practice, institutionalized possibilities for solving conflicts, an answer to the question of why patients complain and sue, and risk management.
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Qual Assur Health Care · Jan 1989
ReviewQuality assurance of pre-operative assessment--a review of quality assurance activities related to pre-operative assessment in nine hospitals in The Netherlands.
Pre-operative assessment of patients for surgery is one of the most prevalent topics for quality assurance by peer-review in Dutch hospitals. This article describes the experiences with pre-operative assessment in nine hospitals. ⋯ Hospital protocols are compared with literature findings and audit studies from two hospitals show the actual compliance to the protocols. It is concluded that peer-review committees and audit studies play a major part in the assurance of the quality of preoperative assessment.