Why has measuring quality become so important in the health care industry?
Generally speaking, its tied to money. Hospitals are reimbursed by insurance companies based on how well they take care of patients, for example, if patients are re-admitted within 30 days, the hospital does not get paid, and it costs the hospital a tremendous amount of money. therefore in order for hospitals to make more money / lose less money they need to demonstrate that they are providing high quality care. This is fairly recent in the legislation and therefore, the measurements of quality are also new in response to that.
