The Ideal of Continuous Improvement

To the Editor: In his Sounding Board article "Continuous Improvement as an Ideal in Health Care" (Jan. 5 issue),* Dr. Berwick articulates persuasive arguments for changing the way we think about improving the quality of health care. Although the publication of statistics on quality may unquestionably be used as a means of removing bad apples from the health care industry, another justification of the policy — not considered by Dr. Berwick — may simply be to provide information to consumers. When it comes to evaluating a wide variety of consumer products and services, the modern consumer is at no loss. . . . No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.