The Quality in Australian Health Care Study (QAHCS)--a review.

Abstract

The author reviews the politics, publicity, methods and findings of the Quality in Australian Health Care Study, which was released to a blaze of media attention in 1995. The study is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the identification and categorisation of preventable adverse events, using expert retrospective review of medical records, and a mix of explicit and implicit criteria. However, its potential impact has been lessened by the way its findings were released.