[Quality assurance in health care and its economic aspects]

The author defines the term of quality assurance as a cycle of activities to ensure the best possibly attainable standard of provided health care and characterizes its attributes. Within the range of a review he analyzes different constituents of quality assurance, in particular with regard to effectiveness and efficiency of health care. In view of the increasing costs of high standard health care efforts of optimization and utilization review of health care are an essential parallel process of quality assurance. The decisive factor is motivation of doctors and health professionals for both mentioned processes, which at present lacks systemic support in this country. The author gives an account of experience assembled abroad pertaining to suggestions for improvement of the standard and optimization in utilization of health care as well as inevitable steps for introducing a programme for quality assurance in health institutions. In the conclusion the asset of this process is summarized.