End-stage renal disease: a proving ground for quality improvement in health care

This article chronicles the health care quality improvement efforts that relate to patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). The emphasis is on quality improvement as a management system as opposed to the quality improvements that resulted from strictly technical dialysis-related issues. The government has exercised considerable oversight on the ESRD program because of its growth and cost. History has shown that quality assurance (QA) has had little effect on improving quality or decreasing cost. The philosophy, methods, and tools of continuous quality improvement (CQI) have been shown to work in health care. CQI is a management system that offers hope for higher quality affordable health care. Computer technology is at last sophisticated enough to permit the collection of large amounts of clinical data at the point of care. This will permit CQI methods and tools to be applied generally at reasonable costs. Physicians in general and nephrologists in particular are beginning to understand the managed care environment. They are beginning to understand the paradigm shift that is required to effect the changes necessary for physicians to assume their leadership role in health care. This article reviews the quality efforts of the past and present. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of efforts to improve quality and lastly presents a vision for the future.