Quality assurance--a process for improving perinatal care.

Quality assurance is an ongoing process, including not only the assessment and evaluation of the quality of care, but also the definition and implementation of strategies to improve the quality. The process of quality assurance must start from the identification of health problems and of the appropriate interventions to address those problems. In perinatal care, however, appropriate assessment of the effectiveness of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and care routines has often been lacking. This symposium will discuss examples of the various steps in quality assurance in perinatal care from countries in the Baltic region.