[Surgical quality assurance in the largest federal district of Austria--introduction of a project]

On the basis of permanently rising costs in health care on the one hand and limited budgets on the other hand as well as the increasing importance of correct and comprehensive quality assurance, we developed protocols for nine different surgical tracer-diagnosis. These protocols include the minimum standards of the medical, nursing and administrative area per day of treatment. After one year of trial at three surgical departments of different capacity, treatment-spectrum and equipment, revised protocols will be implemented at all 23 surgical departments in our federal state if necessary.