International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance: Volume 9 Issue 4

Continuous quality improvement in health maintenance organizations: an application of the HEDIS model

Kristin Kennedy, Sam Mirmirani, Rick Spivack

One aspect of the Clinton Healthcare Reform programme is to assist health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in collecting and analysing data for the purpose of continuous quality…

Inquest on QUEST

Raymond W. Dick

Describes how a group of nurse managers developed a tool for measuring the quality of care in mental hospital wards and how this was adapted for use within general elderly…

Activity‐based cost management in health care ‐ another fad?

Brian Aird

By providing improved information for strategic planning purposes, activity‐based cost management (ABM) systems can help hospitals and other health care providers improve the…

Clinical benchmarking: results into practice

Melanie Maxwell, Tom Kennedy, Alan Spours

Describes the way benchmarking data are used in a district general hospital to influence clinical practice. Wirral Hospital Trust is a site for the Electronic Patient Record…

Does the service at a large oncologic out‐patient clinic satisfy the patients’ perceived need?

Sophie D. Fosså, Marianne J. Hjermstad, Inger Helene Mørk, Per Hjortdahl

Describes the physical status and quality of life in ambulatory oncologic patients seen at the Norwegian Radium Hospital (NRH) and assesses their satisfaction with the out‐patient…

European prototype for integrated care

Leslie Boydell

Describes the EPIC (European prototype for integrated care) project which was set up in 1992 with the aim of “improving the quality of care provided to vulnerable people living in…