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| List of Appendices | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What This Book Is About | |
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| The Meaning of Quality Assurance | |
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| The Targets of Quality Assurance | |
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| The Components of Quality Assurance | |
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| The Quality Monitoring Cycle | |
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| Formal and Informal Monitoring | |
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| Some Foundations of Quality Assurance Through Monitoring | |
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| The Meaning of Quality in Health Care | |
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| The Components of Quality in Health Care | |
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| Efficacy | |
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| Effectiveness | |
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| Efficiency | |
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| Optimality | |
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| Acceptability | |
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| Choosing a Definition of Quality | |
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| Steps in Monitoring and Improving Clinical Performance | |
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| Determining What to Monitor | |
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| Externally Required Monitoring Activities | |
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| Internally Motivated Monitoring Activities | |
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| Determining Priorities in Monitoring | |
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| Importance to Patient Welfare | |
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| Additional Institutional Interests | |
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| Feasibility | |
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| Selecting Approaches to Assessing Performance | |
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| Definitions of Structure, Process, and Outcome | |
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| Comments on the Structure-Process-Outcome Model | |
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| Relative Usefulness of the Three Approaches | |
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| Conclusions About the Choice of an Approach | |
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| Formulating Criteria and Standards | |
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| Definitions of Terms | |
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| Importance of Criteria and Standards | |
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| Some Attributes of Criteria and Standards | |
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| Obtaining the Necessary Information | |
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| Medical Records | |
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| Surveys | |
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| Financial Records | |
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| Statistical Reports | |
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| Direct Observation | |
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| Test Situations | |
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| Choosing When and How to Monitor | |
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| When to Monitor | |
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| How to Monitor | |
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| Constructing a Monitoring System | |
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| Key Elements | |
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| Bringing About Behavior Change | |
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| Readjustments in the System | |
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| Educational and Motivational Activities | |
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| The Effectiveness of Quality Monitoring | |
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| Contextual Factors | |
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| Operational Factors | |
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| Some Concluding Remarks | |
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| References | |
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| Appendices | |
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| Index | |