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Abstract

The Australian Institute of Health (AIH) surveyed all acute hospitals in Australia to discover the extent of quality assurance (QA) activities, the types of programs being run and the processes being used. This paper explains the Institute's research strategy and puts the survey into the context of QA in Australia today. It describes the research method, identifies sources of bias, and presents some of the results. These show that medical record administrators (MRAs) play an active role in QA by coordinating hospital programs, by implementing individual reviews of their own departments, and by servicing other departmental reviews. The results pertaining to the extent and nature of QA are discussed and it is concluded that there seems to be some review of the quality of care for the majority of hospital patients. The effectiveness of that review, and whether or not it is quality assurance, still has to be investigated. (AMRJ 1988, 18(3), 97–101).

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References

Australian Council on Hospital Standards (1986). The Accreditation Guide (5th ed). Sydney; Australian Council on Hospital Standards.

Austin

K.L.

(1988). Obtaining and measuring quality in health care. Paper presented at the Australian College of Health Service Administrators Quality Assurance Seminar, Brisbane, May 1988.

Jamison

J.H.

(Chairman) (1981). Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Efficiency and Administration of Hospitals. Canberra; Australian Government Publishing Service.

Mathers

C.D.

Harvey

D.R.

(1988). Hospital Utilisation and Costs Study (vol. 2): Survey of public hospitals and related data. Canberra; Australian Institute of Health.

Sax

(Chairman) (1983). Report of the Enquiry into Hospital Services in South Australia.

Quality Assurance in Australian Hospitals: How Far Does it Go?

Abstract

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