ABSTRACT
Medical quality is the degree to which health care systems, services, and supplies for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of positive health outcomes. Clinical quality improvement is an interdisciplinary process designed to raise the standards of the delivery of preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative measures to maintain, restore, or improve health outcomes of individuals and populations. Philip Caper discusses the evolution of federal involvement in the pursuit of quality, noting that organized medicine has never been bashful about employing the quality argument to thwart health policy thrusts that it opposed. Using open-ended questions, ask if the patient feels confident in following the treatment recommendations and if the patient sees any problems. Honest attempts to coordinate the care of patients with complex health care needs have further stressed the fragile limits of patient confidentiality to the breaking point.
