Health care quality and safety issues

Semin Speech Lang. 2006 May;27(2):80-8. doi: 10.1055/s-2006-939940.

Abstract

Our health-care system is burdened with high costs, health-care disparities, overtreatment, undertreatment, high error rates, and fraud and abuse. At the same time, the United States has achieved spectacular medical advances using the latest technology. As a result, health-care quality measurement, publicly reported patient safety and quality indicators, and evaluation of patients' experience of care are watchwords of a new era of accountability for health-care professionals and organizations. The health-care industry is subject to increasing regulation, private sector challenges, and public demand to make significant improvements in all three components of the quality triad: structure, process, and outcome. This article examines regulatory initiatives and industry trends pertaining to patient safety and quality measurement and concludes with specific suggestions for the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Audiology / standards
  • Humans
  • Medical Errors / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Medical Errors / mortality
  • Medical Errors / prevention & control
  • Quality Indicators, Health Care
  • Quality of Health Care* / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Quality of Health Care* / standards
  • Quality of Health Care* / trends
  • Safety* / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Safety* / standards
  • Speech-Language Pathology / standards
  • United States