Improving the Quality of Care

Abstract

Quality of care is making a comeback. After more than two decades of preoccupation with the costs of health care, more attention is being devoted to quality. But much of the attention is coming from unlikely sources — organizations more often associated with efforts to reduce costs. Employers are talking about the quality of health care.^1,2 Managed-care companies and insurers talk about it.^3,4 Data touted as measures of quality are increasingly appearing in newspaper and magazine articles.⁵⁷ The Health Care Financing Administration and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) have called for a more . . .