Protecting and Improving Quality of Care for Children under Health Care Reform: Workshop Highlights

This report discusses the quality of health care for children in light of national health care reform proposals put forth in 1994, and is based on presentations and discussions at an invitational workshop on maternal and child health. The report examines issues related to: (1) the differences between health care provision for children and adults; (2) the dependent status of children; (3) children's patterns of illness and injury; (4) monitoring the quality of children's care needs, including medical and non-medical services; (5) the identification of additional indicators to assess children's health; (6) the establishment of accountability for the quality of the care that children receive; and (7) the need for further research to develop better techniques and tools to support assessments of the quality of children's health care. Two appendices provide a list of related publications from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council and a list of workshop participants. (MDM)