| Preface | |
| Contributors | |
| Introduction | |
| Sect. I | The Revolution in Health Care Delivery | |
| Ch. 1 | Historical Perspectives | 3 |
| Ch. 2 | The New Accreditation System: An Overview from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations | 17 |
| Ch. 3 | Clinical Quality: The Effective Relationship of Hospital Management and the Medical Staff | 25 |
| Sect. II | Organizing for Change | |
| Ch. 4 | Defining and Measuring the Quality of Health Care | 41 |
| Ch. 5 | Setting Standards | 65 |
| Ch. 6 | Decision Analysis and Meta-Analysis: Dealing with Information Overload | 85 |
| Ch. 7 | Severity of Illness and Other Confounders of Quality Measurement | 101 |
| Ch. 8 | Evaluating Clinical Studies | 125 |
| Sect. III | Quality Issues | |
| Ch. 9 | Access to Health Care | 139 |
| Ch. 10 | Hospitalwide Surveillance Activities | 157 |
| Ch. 11 | Quality Improvement: Controlling the Risk of Adverse Events | 193 |
| Ch. 12 | Ethical Issues in Measuring Quality Care | 209 |
| Ch. 13 | Small Area Variations, Practice Style, and Quality of Care | 223 |
| Sect. IV | Approaches and Examples for Specific Departments | |
| Ch. 14 | Anesthesia | 241 |
| Ch. 15 | Critical Care Units | 267 |
| Ch. 16 | Emergency Department | 297 |
| Ch. 17 | Hospital Dentistry | 319 |
| Ch. 18 | Obstetrics and Gynecology | 333 |
| Ch. 19 | Ophthalmology | 345 |
| Ch. 20 | Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery | 361 |
| Ch. 21 | Pediatrics | 371 |
| Ch. 22 | Psychiatry | 383 |
| Ch. 23 | Radiology | 405 |
| Ch. 24 | Surgery | 419 |
| Ch. 25 | Urology | 441 |
| Ch. 26 | The Clinical Laboratory | 465 |
| Ch. 27 | The Microbiology Laboratory | 493 |
| Ch. 28 | The Pharmacy and Drug Usage | 509 |
| Index | 521 |