Quality improvement in public health: where are we now?

摘要

Managing performance and strengthening accountability have emerged as the prevailing themes confronting public health agencies as expectations continue to rise and resources tighten. Two prominent strategies to strengthen accountability and improve performance across agencies are voluntary accreditation of health departments coupled with continuous quality improvement (QI). This special issue is dedicated to the current and future states of quality improvement in public health, examining the current research from the field as well as our expectations for the future. To address these issues, we have selected various experts from the field to provide timely research and commentary that set the stage for accreditation and QI in public health as well as the promises they hold for the future.