“…Quality and its assessment within health care has a long history (Cabot, 1912; Reed and Clark, 1941; Sheps, 1955; Makover, 1951; Donabedian, 1996a, b). Internationally, quality is an important component of health care policy and some countries legislate for quality assessment and improvement (Pollitt, 1993a; Øvretveit, 1994; Sluijs et al , 2001).…”