Quality assurance in hip arthroplasty

Documentation is key to quality assurance (QA): Data must be complete, plau sible, and comparable, and then analyzed to implement corrective measures. Important factors are: qualification of care-providing staff, equipment and implants available (structural quality), effective scheduling of operation s and therapy management (process quality), and patient status monitoring ( outcome quality). The primary aim is to reveal deficits in process quality and develop and implement improvements in care. QA does not aim at exposing individual mistakes or flawed techniques; rather it is designed to analyze processes and treatments and implement specific solutions. An evaluation p rofile with the key quality indicators and a QA guideline is presented. A s urvey conducted in Germany Austria, and Switzerland revealed: (1) up to 12- month waiting period for surgery in 6%, (2) only 40% written instructions, (3) data mostly written by hand, (4) differences in surgery planning and us e of prosthesis passport, (6) inconsistent data analysis, (7) corrective me asures rarely implemented.