quality assurance (QA)

Introduction

Compare with continuous quality improvement (CQI) Features

• goals:
  • quality improvement
    • achieve predetermined outcomes
  • utilization management
    • reviews care patients receive during hospitalization
    • works with insurance for reimbursement
  • risk management -
    • incident reports, review, trends
    • management of property & liability
    • customer conserns through patient advocate
• data collection
  • timing: retrospective
  • performance: QA staff, inspections
• data analysis: minimal
• feedback to staff: irregular & mainly to managers
• staff training: classroom
• staff involvement: low
• motivation for improvement
  • reprimands
  • warnings
  • small merit increases
  • facility citations & fines

More general terms

• quality control (QC)

More specific terms

• clinical practice guidelines performance indicator (CPGPI)
• continuous quality improvement (CQI) or total quality management (TQM)
• Medicare's Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IRQ) Program

Additional terms

• quality indicator (QI); quality measure