PSRO: a new direction for quality assessment in Otolaryngology.

At the present time, the University of Michigan Hospital Department of Otorhinolaryngology has an 18-month experience in a quality assessment program directed toward compliance with PSRO legislation. This experience, we hope, provides an approach to the continuing assessment of medical care, whether it is for conforming to a particular legislative action or for the evaluation of patient care. It has been encouraging to the physicians involved that this is a program which is organized at the local level. It is oriented toward the local physician and in most instances will be administered by local physicians. The process of quality assessment has provided a milieu for educational experience and positive action toward correction of medical care problems. It has been said before that this may be the last opportunity for the physician to maintain control at the local level. This may be the opportunity for the profession to proceed with controlled quality assessment before outside agencies intercede.