Synopses & Reviews
This book describes a quality assurance system for high-volume pediatric outpatient departments. It is based on the Pediatric Protocol Project which the authors developed and implemented in King's County Hospital in Brooklyn in late 1981 and which has since been installed in five other large hospitals in New York City. The management system is designed to be built into the very process of delivering health care, providing guidelines for diagnosis, case management, and record keeping. This volume describes these elements of the system and others, such as the parent education materials developed to support the standard guidelines. The result of input from a large number of pediatricians and a careful review of the medical literature, the book can serve as a manual for anyone who would like to implement the system. It also places the system squarely in the context of major health issues such as quality assurance, cost-effectiveness, and health care administration. It will be of interest to hospital administrators, health care systems analysts, government health agencies, and pediatricians and family practitioners.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Problems in Health Care Delivery
3. Review of Experience with Quality Assurance
4. Overview of the Pediatric Guideline System
5. Guidelines
6. Decision Trees
7. Annotations for Guidelines
8. Structured Encounter Forms
9. The Computer Component of the Pediatric Guideline System
10. Parent Education
11. Implementation and Operation of the System
12. Results of Implementation of the System
13. Costs and Potential Savings of the System
14. Conclusion