[Quality management of treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in a rheumatological setting]

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease affecting about 1% of the general population world-wide. It is characterised by severe pain and a reduction of functional capacity leading to a reduced quality of life. The initiation of an early, effective, continuous and long-term treatment is essential for preventing or delaying progression of disease as long as possible. The implementation of a comprehensive and structured quality management program including both general practitioners and specialists in rheumatology will help to support structural, procedural and outcome quality based on special indices that can be used for benchmarking. The Swiss Clinical Quality Management (SCQM) and the regional model project of the Regional Co-operative Rheumatology Centre in Hanover, Germany (Regionales Kooperatives Rheumazentrum Hannover e.V.) are two examples for total quality management (TQM) of inflammatory rheumatic diseases.