Quality Management in Outpatient Arthritis Care Through Coordination O
ffices: Clinical quality management in rheumatology helps to continual
ly improve the quality of care for arthritis patients by a coordinativ
e network of primary care physicians, rheumatologists and rheumatology
health professionals. In order to improve the delivery of care for ar
thritis patients, the roles and cooperation of the primary care physic
ian and the specialized rheumatologist need to be defined more precise
ly. For the individual patient, a therapeutical plan should be worked
out depending on the patient-centred data obtained by various question
naires and by the Disease Activity Score (DAS) measured by the rheumat
ologist. A coordination office helps to assess the DAS scores, acts as
an advisory board for cooperating physicians and takes care that pati
ents continue to be followed up by the rheumatologists.