Assessing the Quality of Inpatient Care by Internists

摘要

This was a study of the feasibility of criterion based peer review at three community hospitals: York, Allentown and Franklin Square. The study was designed to develop in each of the three community hospitals a review technique for the evaluation of the quality of medical care in the management of specific diseases or in the performance of selected procedures. A type of medical audit was developed and demonstrated to be feasible. It was considered to be of value as a reflection of the quality of medical care in two of the three hospitals, Allentown and York, as attested by its continued use beyond completion of the project. Criteria for evaluation of medical care have been established, modified, and presumably improved at each of these hospitals. Similarly, data collection methods have been improved. Analyses of the medical audits have been used as the basis for educational programs, although there is little evidence that either hospital has yet been able to define priorities for these programs from the analyses.