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J Mainz

Publications and source records attributed to J Mainz.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

[Audit--a method for quality assessment in health care].

If the intentions of genuine assessment of quality and ensuring quality are to be realised in the Danish health service, it is essential that the methods employed are known and accessible. This review presents audit which is a concrete method of assessing quality. In an audit, concrete clinical cases are assessed in order to evaluate the quality of the services rendered by the health service in this instance. Assessment of quality is performed on the basis of criteria and standards for the services rendered. The conclusions end in assessment of whether the services was satisfactory or not. In connection with the unsatisfactory services, the reasons leading to this conclusion are specified. The object of an audit is to assess, ensure and raise the quality of the professional standard. By means of assessing concrete case histories the object is to identify problems of quality which could be influenced by adjustment or alteration of the practice with the object of improving the quality of the diagnosis, treatment and care. Assessment of quality in an audit should thus be carried out as a link in ensuring quality. This implies that the reasons for possible defects in quality should be elucidated. Reports should be given to the health staff involved and measures to improve quality should be worked out and instituted. After a suitable interval, the quality of the service concerned should be assessed again. International experience with audit is extensive. In a series of countries, audit is an integral part of systematic assessment of quality.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Denmark↗
PubMed1992

[Quality assessment, quality assurance and quality improvement in health care. Concepts and terminology].

At present the topic "quality of health care" takes up a central position in the Danish debate, both among health professionals and politicians. In the present review the terms quality, quality assessment, and quality assurance are attempted defined and described. To assess the quality of health care deliveries it is necessary to establish indicators, criteria and standards. Indicators are defined variables which reflect deviations in quality. Criteria are established determinants of the optimal level of care while standards represent the degree of fulfillment of these. The relationship between indicators, criteria, and standards are illustrated. Quality assurance is a continuous process based on identifying quality problems for a given health delivery, and determining criteria and standards in relation to this. Quality assessment is the data collection and analysis through which the degree of conformity to predetermined standards and criteria are exemplified. If the quality, through this process is found to be unsatisfactory, attempts are made to discover the reason for this. On the basis of this, remedial actions are instituted and the quality reevaluated after a suitable time period. This stepwise process makes quality assurance a dynamic activity where criteria and standards are revised continuously with the overall purpose of improving the quality of health care services. Quality assessment and assurance should be incorporated as routine activities for health professionals. However, development, testing, and validation of the tools and methodologies for this new discipline are research activities.

Denmark↗
PubMed1990

[The effect of social and biological factors on work disability in an industrial population].

The authors analyze the influence of various factors on the work absenteeism in an industrial population. The work absenteeism changes significantly with age. Short, frequent incapacities, in particular on account of respiratory diseases, are typical for young age (approximately under 25 years). Least numbers of sickness days per year were recorded in workers in the fourth decade of life. Absenteeism on account of cardiovascular disease rises with age. The total work absenteeism is higher in manual workers, as compared with administrative workers and higher in women than in men. The differences depend also on the mean monthly income--the lowest rate of work absenteeism was recorded in people with a gross income above 4,500 Kcs. The influence of these factors in such that it is not possible to detect a relationship between work incapacity and biological factors, e.g. blood pressure, body weight, lipidogram, blood sugar level and others. It is beyond doubt, however, that the morbidity and mortality rate from non-infectious diseases depend on these factors. The causes of work incapacity are complex and are mostly influenced by circumstances beyond the health services.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1989

[Informations on oncologic epicrises contained in medical records].

The informative content of summaries concerning 96 patients in whom the diagnosis of cancer of the breast was established in 1986 in local and regional hospitals in Denmark was investigated. The informative content of the summaries were illustrated by investigation of the extent to which the summaries contained information about the diagnosis, treatment, laboratory investigations, information to the patient and her relatives and information about contact with the general practitioner. In addition, summaries from the regional hospitals were investigated as regards information about the prognosis and the medical and sociomedical therapeutic plan. Information about the diagnosis, treatment, laboratory investigations and the medical therapeutic plans was, as a rule, provided in the summaries. Information about information to the relatives, prognosis and the sociomedical therapeutic plan for follow-up control by the general practitioner was scarcely ever provided in the summaries. Information to the patient was mentioned in less than half of the summaries from local hospitals and in less than 20% of the summaries from regional hospitals. This investigation reveals that the summaries lack valuable information.

Breast Neoplasms↗