[National and international sources for clinical quality indicators].

High quality healthcare necessitates taking appropriate steps to promote quality. One of the major tools used to promote quality in healthcare is clinical quality indicators. This paper briefly reviews major organizations dealing with quality indicators, in primary care as well as hospital medicine, in Israel and worldwide.

[Towards a more equitable distribution of resources and assessment of quality of care: validation of a comorbidity based case-mix system].

Background: Equitable distribution of healthcare resources and fair assessments of providers' performance necessitates adjusting for case-mix. The feasibility and validity of applying case-mix measures, based on inpatient and outpatient diagnoses, has yet to be tested in Israel.

Aims: Assessment of the feasibility and validity of applying the Johns-Hopkins University Adjusted Clinical Groups (JHU-ACG) case-mix system, using diagnoses from hospitalizations or physician visits, at Clalit Health Services (CHS).

Reducing health disparities: strategy planning and implementation in Israel's largest health care organization.

Objective: To describe an organization-wide disparity reduction strategy and to assess its success in quality improvement and reduction of gaps in health and health care.

Study Setting: Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest non-for-profit insurer and provider serving 3.8 million persons.

[The quality indigators program in Clalit Health Services: the first decade].

The quality indicators program in the community has existed in Clalit Health Services for over a decade. As a part of this program, approximately 70 evidence-based quality indicators have been defined, in 11 different domains. The indicators relate to preventive medicine (immunizations, early detection of diseases, e.