ABSTRACT
The term "clinical outcomes" is defined as the results of care in terms of a patient's health measured over time. The primary reason for measuring and managing clinical outcomes performance is to drive quality improvement. Measuring clinical outcomes is central to assessing the quality of care. Outcome measures can be very useful in quality improvement programs by pointing out the areas in which intervention could improve care. Outcomes should be measured by the patient's medical condition or primary care patient segment, and not by procedure or intervention. Most current outcome measurements focus on the immediate results of a treatment for a patient condition rather than the overall success of the full life cycle of care. Due to recent healthcare policies, the future of healthcare reimbursement is going to be complex and unpredictable. Payers are demanding that healthcare reimbursements be linked to high-quality clinical outcomes.
