Activities, Events and Outcomes in Ambulatory Patient Care

THE importance of evaluating the quality of medical care and the problems associated with such an endeavor have been emphasized repeatedly.1 2 3 4 Most efforts to measure the quality of care have attempted to analyze either the process of giving care or the outcomes or results of care. Studies of both types have been limited by methodologic problems as well as the relative lack of naturally occurring opportunities to apply various technics involving observation or recording of interactions between doctors and patients, chart audits and interview of patients. The sensitivity of physicians to third-party surveillance also has tended to restrict experimentation.There . . .