Among the wealth of contributions Dr. Donabedian leaves to the field of quality assurance and improvement are two remarkable articles assessing the quality of the quality assurance exercise itself. Largely unknown, these two articles (one a chapter in a book entitled Striving for Quality: An Inquiry into Policy and Practice; the other an “end-of-career” lookback published in 1996 in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care Vol 8 (4) p. 401) provide both an excellent starting point summarizing and synthesizing Donabedian's work. They also can be used as a lens to peer into the current state of quality improvement and focus Donabedian's lessons to current issues. This presentation will therefore acquaint attendees with the two articles and apply them to year 2000 improvement issues.
Learning Objectives: 1. Acquaint participants with two "lost" classic articles (by Dr. Avedis Donabedian) which analyze the effectiveness of quality assurance and ways to enhance quality. 2. Critically examine key points raised in these classic articles for their current relevance and application to year 2000 quality issues
Keywords: Quality Assurance, Quality Improvement
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.