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National Quality-of-Care Standards in Home-Based Primary Care
- Steven H. Landers, MD, MPH
- From Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106.
TO THE EDITOR:
Smith and colleagues (1) should be commended for their efforts to introduce quality standards for home-based primary care. Unfortunately, their selection process and choice of indicators overlooked important qualities of elderly patients with chronic illness and the role of home-based primary care. They have exaggerated the importance of narrow, condition-specific guidelines and have shortchanged the value of measuring patient-centered aspects of care. Following these guidelines could lead to lower-quality care as clinician attention is diverted from meeting patient and family goals to focusing on irrelevant checklists.
Home-based primary care has tremendous …
