Quality of care: From theory to practice

Quality of care is a growing concern among health care professionals and managers. As a multidimensional concept, it cannot be reduced to simple customer satisfaction. Taking into account the views of the three major players in the health care system-patients, providers and payers-quality can be defined as the capacity to satisfy patients' needs according to professional knowledge and within available resources. Efficacy efficiency, appropriateness, acceptability, legitimacy and equity are dimensions of health care quality. Contrary to popular belief, quality is neither maximum performance, nor satisfaction at all costs, nor punishment or elimination of <<bad apples>>. In ambulatory medicine, quality implies first of all the ability to master the processes occurring during an office visit. However, although history taking and physical examination are the cornerstones of medical practice, they have not been well studied. Improving quality of care in the ambulatory sector will require better knowledge about medical decision-making processes, in particular identification of the most relevant information required for a decision and the optimal way of obtaining it in any specific clinical situation.