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	Southern Tier Regional Emergency Medical Services Council

GLOSSARY

Continuous Quality Improvement: The sum of activities undertaken by the service to provide confidence to its patients and maintain a standard of excellence. It is a dynamic process based on multiple activities to maintain the ultimate goal of the Emergency Medical Service System: the provision of timely, efficient and effective prehospital care to all those who need it.

Indicators: Any of a group of predetermined values that are of high risk to the provider or service that should be periodically reviewed to reduce risk. They can be either high or low volume.

Concurrent Review: Real time review of processes through on-line medical control, ED observation, field observation, etc.

Prospective Review: Measuring future evens against predetermined standards. This is accomplished through standardized protocols, establishment of time standards, etc.

Retrospective Review: Review of system processes after they occur. This is accomplished through PCR review, critique sessions, patient complaints, etc.

Structural Evaluation: Deals with the presence of mandated resources and includes standard setting for non-personnel issues. This includes evaluating physical facilities, equipment stocking and control procedures, etc.

Process Evaluation: Deals with the use of resources and appropriateness of such utilization. This deals with patient processing, triage, utilization of available resources, etc.

Outcome Evaluation: Deals with the results of care provided. This deals with stabilization and survival through to recovery and hospital discharge.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. New York State EMS Quality Assurance Manual and attendant bibliography.
2. Resource Document: Nursing Care of the Trauma Patient, Trauma Nursing Coalition, 992.
3. Joint Commission Primer on Indicator Development and Application, Measuring Quality in Health Care, 1990, Chapter 2.
4. Polaky, A. Axott, M.D., Continuous Quality Improvement in EMS, ACEP, 1992
5. Swor, Robert A., M.D., Quality Management in Prehospital Care, NAEMS Physicians, Mosby, 1993.

ON-LINE RESOURCES

A Leadership Guide to Quality Improvement for Emergency Medical Services Systems http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/ems/leaderguide/

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/ems/pdf/srgcqi.pdf

NAEMSQP (EMS Quality Professionals) http://www.mhf.net/emscompass/

http://www.ems-c.org/

http://www.naemsqp.org/home.htm