Part 3: Improving the quality of care

Employers are talking about the quality of health care.1 ,2 Managed-care companies and insurers talk about it.3 ,4 Data touted as measures of quality are increasingly appearing in newspaper and magazine articles.5 -7 The Health Care Financing Administration and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) have called for a more cooperative effort to enhance quality.8 ,9 Physicians may be forgiven if they are dubious.