Innovations in Health Care Quality Measurement and Management

This paper provides an overview of innovations and initiatives in health care quality measurement and management in Austria between 1997 and 2011. It firstly offers a comprehensive description of the regulatory framework of the Austrian quality assurance system in health care and provides some insights into respective public reporting mechanisms. In the second part of the paper a case study on Austria’s disease management program (DMP) outlines recent developments in an initiative combining integrated care with a scheme incentivising providers to deliver high quality care according to quality guidelines. The paper highlights promising steps taken by the Austrian federal government, the länder (federal states), and other relevant stakeholders involved in quality management since the introduction of the Health Quality Act in 2005. However, fragmentation prevails when it comes to quality reporting, in particular in the ambulatory care sector. Various policy initiatives to overcome the lack of integrated care as well as so called ‘reform pool ’ projects have produced tangibl