Institute of Medicine Report on Quality of Care
Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: National Academic Press; 2001.
Webinar
The following tutorial from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality discusses how we measure health care quality.
Tutorials & Presentations: Measuring Health Care Quality. KaiserEDU.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) specific mission is to act as a problem solver and to improve the quality, safety, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. Some major aspects of the AHRQ's work include research to support evidence-based decision-making, by developing and synthesizing scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness and quality of clinical services.
Other work is done in the area of patient safety, and how to improve the quality and safety of health care, addressing questions related to medical errors and how scientific information can make
the whole system safer. Go to http://www.ahrq.gov for more information on this and how the AHRQ uses research data to improve quality through evidence-based decision-making or on its quality indicators for hospitals, physicians, and other health providers, as well as its investment in information technology (IT), reporting systems, human capital, and other initiatives.
