9. PSRO review of long-term care utilization and quality.

PSROs will require a broad range of information with which to develop and sustain the review process for long-term care institutions. The general approach to PSRO review of long-term care described here has been approved by the National Professional Standards Review Council. In implementing this approach, the Bureau of Quality Assurance recognizes that long-term care review is in an evolutionary state, and will initiate a series of demonstrations designed to test and refine various acceptable approaches, rather than require a single uniform methodology for PSRO use. The test period will provide the Bureau with an opportunity to fully assess the feasibility, costs, and impact on the quality of care of various approaches. The basic elements of long-term care review remain unchanged. A general outline of the currently proposed PSRO long-term care review system is described in the middle section of the paper.