Accreditation and associated quality assurance efforts.

Discusses accreditation programs and the quality assurance efforts associated with them. The demands of consumers and purchasers of services, expressed in governmental action, have forced more direct and systematic efforts to assess and assure service quality. Time- and cost-efficient methods for assessing quality are available, but their use is resisted by organized medicine, which controls most accreditation and quality assurance activities in health care. The involvement of psychologists in the programs is discussed. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)