Misguided surveillance: physicians' roles in medical care assessment. Part II.

In his article last month, Mr. Gliebe showed that no consensus has been reached on what the indicators of quality of medical care are actually measuring. In this article, he emphasizes that judgments of overuse or misuse of ancillary services and laboratory tests cannot be made without first judging quality of care, yet quality measurement capabilities are minimal. He maintains that since medical care review is mandated, it should be based on valid data obtained from the clinician involved in the patient's treatment. Thus, he suggests as a possible solution focusing on the individual clinical case.