for hospitals to undertake practices that will markedly decrease their VAP rates and yet do little or nothing to improve patient outcomes. 12 The implications are as follows: (1) VAP as currently defined is not a suitable measure for benchmarking hospitals or for external assessment of quality of care since the diagnosis is too inexact and liable to be gamed; (2) internal quality improvement in...

Since publication of the U.S. Surgeon General's report Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity--A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), several federal initiatives signal a sustained focus on addressing African American-White American disparities in mental health treatment access and quality and open the way to unpr...

Executive Summary eBusiness and egovernment initiatives have resulted in tremendous economic development, improvements in quality of life, and operational efficiencies around the globe. However, 50-80% of these initiatives fail due to re-invention of the wheel, especially in developing countries and the underserved sectors of the developed countries (e.g., local governments and small to medium ...

BACKGROUND Patient experience surveys are increasingly important in the measurement of, and attempts to improve, health-care quality. To date, little research has focused upon doctors' attitudes to surveys which give them personalized feedback. AIM This paper explores doctors' perceptions of patient experience surveys in primary and secondary care settings in order to deepen understandings of...

PURPOSE Information about the costs and experiences of collecting and reporting quality measure data are vital for practices deciding whether to adopt new quality improvement initiatives or monitor existing initiatives. METHODS Six primary care practices from Colorado's Improving Performance in Practice program participated. We conducted structured key informant interviews with Improving Perf...

BACKGROUND Physicians in small to moderate primary care practices in the United States (U.S.) (<25 physicians) face unique challenges in implementing quality improvement (QI) initiatives, including limited resources, small staffs, and inadequate information technology systems 23,36. This qualitative study sought to identify and understand the characteristics and organizational cultures of physi...

As an international ® nancial center, the banking industry in Hong Kong (HK) plays a signi® cant role. Because of increasingly competitive pressure from domestic and overseas banks, HK banks must tightly control cost and improve quality and eý ciency of operations in order to maintain pro® tability. For this purpose, quality management has emerged as an eþ ective tool in recent years. In fact, ...

The Mission of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has been to support and conduct health services research and to disseminate those research findings. Recently the Agency has changed its mission to: "Improving the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of health care for all Americans." For agency personnel working with the topic of patient safety, that change has crea...