Quality

Can be defined as a measure of the degree to which delivered health services meet established professional standards and judgments of value to the consumer. Quality may also be seen as the degree to which actions taken or not taken maximize the probability of beneficial health outcomes and minimize risk and other untoward outcomes, given the existing state of medical science and art. Quality is frequently described as having three dimensions: quality of input resources; quality of the process of services delivery (the use of appropriate procedures for a given condition); and quality of outcome of service use (actual improvement in condition or reduction of harmful effects). Quality programs are commonly called QA, TQM, QI, CQI and other acronyms, all referring to the process of monitoring quality in systematic ways.

Quality Assurance (QA)

Activities and programs intended to assure the quality of care in a defined medical setting. Such programs include peer or utilization review components to identify and remedy deficiencies in quality. The program must have a mechanism for assessing its effectiveness and may measure care against pre-established standards.