Measurement: a question of accuracy.

摘要

MEASUREMENT ... it is a routine part of our daily activities. At home, we are often content with estimates, but in the work setting, we usually require extreme accuracy. Webster defines measurement as the determination of the dimensions, capacity, or amount of something. Measurement in health care is denned as the "process of assigning numbers to objects to represent the kind and/or amount of attributes or characteristics possessed by those objects." Measurement is the key to the evaluation of interventions on patient outcome, and is the core of quality/performance improvement. Newhouse comments that strong measurement leads to usable evidence for the purposes of decision-making. This evidence must be culled from measurement approaches that are clear, focused, valid and reliable.