Measuring Outcomes in Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment

If you can not measure it, you can notimprove it.—Lord KelvinWHY MEASURE OUTCOMES?Once the sole purview of clinical and health-services research, outcome assessment hasbecome a core component of clinical practice.Generally speaking, outcome measurement maybe used for accountability, quality improvement,andhealth-systemdesign(eg,resourceallocation,purchasing decisions, and policy development)(Box 1). Accountability refers to the demonstrationthat a particular surgeon’s or team’s results arewithin accepted standards. Quality improvementis a process of combining domain expertise withknowledge of systems, variation, and psychologyto effect meaningful improvement. Originallydevelopedinthemanufacturingandserviceindus-tries, quality improvement is now widely applied tohealth care delivery systems.