REVIEWS  ANESTHESIOLOGY Free access

Minerva Anestesiologica 1999 March;65(3):95-100

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Quality control in anesthesia. A new frontier

Varrassi G., Mariangeli F., Facchetti G.

Università degli Studi - L’Aquila, Cattedra di Anestesia e Terapia del Dolore

For several years now, the need for improving healthcare quality has determined the adoption of a businesslike philosophy in American hospitals, through quality control and improvement systems. In Italy, the introduction of this business concept in public healthcare is recent, while quality assurance is still widely ignored. The anesthesiology wards have a central role in making the DRG mechanism work and therefore need computerised systems that can guarantee correct evaluation of results, analysis of efficacy and quality assurance. The development of a quality control and assurance system in anesthesiology, can be achieved by following a few simple guidelines: to identify the indicators, sensitise the personnel towards an attitude of improvement, adopt a computerised database, verify and elaborate data, correct the defects, verify the changes made to the system.