Download
Download Free Electronic Document
Format | File Size | Notes |
---|---|---|
PDF file | 0.9 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Purchase
Purchase Print Copy
Format | List Price | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Add to Cart | Paperback13 pages | $20.00 | $16.00 20% Web Discount |
This Note considers future directions for health care quality assessment research and the uses to which its products should be put. Health services research can profitably be focused on issues of efficacy, effectiveness, variations in use, or quality of care. The authors argue, however, that future important issues require that information from all these areas be integrated into a "macro" model that will address continuing problems in the medical system. They identify a number of research needs in the quality assessment field: (1) establish the links between the process and outcomes of care, (2) establish the clinical validity of process measures, (3) develop outcome measures that are feasible to collect, (4) continually refine definitions of patient outcomes based on evolving clinical understandings of disease, (5) learn more about physician-patient communication and interaction, (6) develop an epidemiology of the quality of medical care, and (7) measure the direct and indirect costs and benefits of medical care. The authors conclude that we need a fully integrated system of data collection and information dissemination and we must discard medical procedures and services that are not efficacious.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Note series. The note was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1979 to 1993 that reported other outputs of sponsored research for general distribution.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.