Transferability of Existing Approaches of Quality Management to Primary Prevention

Public Health and in this regard also prevention are gaining increasing importance in health policy related discussions. Besides the costs of preventive measures, quality assurance is moving more and more to the centre of attention. A similar phenomenon could be observed with in-patient care over the past few years. Especially in the area of outcome quality innovative concepts have been researched and discussed. These initiatives were increasingly driven by the health insurance companies. This article defines the quality term in health care und presents existing approaches for measuring outcome quality in in-patient care. Subsequently, it is discussed to what extent these approaches can be transferred to the area of primary prevention. It turns out that especially the more analytical approach based on routine date can only be applied to a limited degree. A bigger potential is seen by using standardized surveys, especially when they are developed and tested by a higher authority.