Quality Assurance Evaluation: The Need for Emphasis

It is proposed that two approaches to evaluation that are being used to evaluate a major quality assurance initiative in the field of mental health care should be incorporated into all quality assurance evaluations. The author′s own evaluative work has been centred on a quality assurance system known as QUARTZ which is currently being piloted in three health districts in the South‐East Thames region of England. The importance of evaluating quality assurance programmes is stressed and it is argued that two particular forms of evaluation, utilisation‐oriented evaluation and formative evaluation, are particularly useful in this respect. Health care quality assurance programmes are particularly important arenas for evaluators to examine, especially with their probable proliferation in the wake of the statutory requirements centred on 1991.