This excerpted article originally appeared in Stearns NS, Getchell ME, Gold RK. Continuing Medical Education in Community Hospitals: A Manual for Program Development. Boston: Postgraduate Medical Institute, 1971, 88-96; and was published by the Massachusetts Medical Society, as a supplement to The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 284; No. 20; May 20, 1971.

No abstract

In 1970, prior to present-day requirements for quality assurance programs, a project was undertaken to institute such a program voluntarily in ten hospitals. Five hospitals succeeded in fully implementing the program which was based on the "Bi-Cycle Process" and each documented improvements in desired patient care behaviors. Two hospitals partially implemented the process and demonstrated no significant changes in desired patient care behaviors. Two hospitals failed to provide the data upon which assessments could be made and one hospital never got beyond preliminary efforts at instituting the process. The project demonstrates that a voluntary quality assurance program is feasible and has important implications for PSROs and continuing medical education. It also provides evidence that attention to psychosocial factors is essential in the institutionalization of programs designed to produce desired changes in patient care behaviors.

No abstract