Is there a clear definition of health care standards?
It may be argued that there have always been health care standards: some explicit in nature (in the form of clinical guidelines and position statements), but many implicit, defined and maintained by the professionalism of self-regulating health care providers. From a patient’s perspective, however, there is a reasonable expectation of public accountability for explicitly defined standards that support high-quality health care. In addition, patients may interpret “quality” differently from clinicians.7 Ultimately, the quality domains and standards chosen will reflect community values and social goals.8 Safety standards have been defined as “agreed attributes and processes designed to ensure that a product, service or method will perform consistently at a designated level”.9 A designation of minimally acceptable performance that applies to all cases may attract high-level regulation, even legislation, with which all stakeholders would agree, as is the case for the incorporation of seatbe
