ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the activities of quality assurance as it applies to health care organizations in general and managed care organizations in particular. QA is described here as all the processes and subprocesses of planning for quality, setting of standards, indicators, and thresholds of expected quality, and the active communication of the expected quality in measurable terms to the appropriate audience and the direct users. The QA plan is document developed by the organization that defines the conceptual understanding of quality in that organization, and provides a description of the organizational structure, the resources, and the materials allocated to that organization’s quality program. Once QA plan is developed, it should be circulated to all the key individuals of program and then sent for review and approval by the organization’s top administrator and its board of directors. Therefore, a comprehensive and well-developed plan is essential not only for accreditation, but also for ensuring the success of quality program in that organization.
