Abstract
Quantitative measure of the quality of medical care using clinical indicators has been actively implemented in Western countries to assure the quality of medical care. Similar attempts have also recently begun to be implemented in Japan, for example at the National Hospital Organization where efforts have been made to facilitate evaluation of the quality of care through utilization of “clinical evaluation indicators” (a term used at the National Hospital Organization equivalent to the clinical indicators mentioned above) for visualization of the current status. In fiscal 2010, the National Hospital Organization participated in the “Quality of Care Evaluation/Publication Promotion Program” under the initiative of the Health Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Within the framework of this program, the Organization attempted to make public the results from the 45 member hospitals, together with the name of each hospital. The organization also made public the manual for measurement (including the formulae for calculation) that would allow measure of the clinical evaluation indicators in other hospitals covered by the DPC (Diagnosis Procedure Combination) system or planned to be covered by the system. Clinical evaluation indicators are useful to detect potential issues through presenting inter-hospital variations in data, and so on. From now on, the validity of these indicators should also be tested to confirm, for example, that they appropriately reflect the quality of care during routine clinical practice.
