Quality assurance in ambulatory nutritional care. II. Field testing of criteria.

Quality assurance criteria developed for six target populations of pregnant women and obese infants, children, and adolescents were field tested in 102 ambulatory care settings to determine whether they were relevant, understandable, measurable, behavioral, and achievable. Field testing identified specific problems in ambulatory nutritional care settings related to documentation and feasibility of using patient care records to provide data to assess quality of care and to determine how statements were formulated. Field test results were used to rewrite the criteria. Findings are consistent with those of other authors.