THE COST OF AN ESTABLISHED QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM - IS IT WORTH IT

Although the literature concerning quality assurance (QA) is voluminou s little information exists about the costs or benefits of departmenta lly based QA programmes. We measured the direct costs and then investi gated the financial and non-financial benefits derived from a well-fun ded QA programme over a period of five years. Data were obtained from departmental budgets, annual reports of the QA programme, and several databases used by the programme. The average annual cost was $79,900, with salaries being the largest component, while $14,300 each year wer e recovered through the activities of the programme. True costs were h igher than those calculated since time volunteered by medical staff an d resources shared with other programmes could not be determined. Some of the costs encountered at the outset of this programme were later o ffset by the use of commercial software and employment of volunteers a nd casual staff Fifty-three projects were identified over the five-yea r period. Most lacked directly measurable financial outcomes (because they were based opt education research, patient or practitioner satisf action). The benefit of the programme has been greater to the departme nt than suggested from cost analysis alone. Although this programme co uld not be justified on a simple cost recovery basis, the authors felt it to be worthy of continued support because of the non-financial ben efits. However, modification is required to minimize costs.