Comparisons among quality assurance systems: from outcome assessment to clinical utility.

This special section describes contemporary systems for assessing the quality and effectiveness of service delivery. These systems have in common their commitment to the belief that by continuously monitoring treatment-related change, identifying problem cases, and providing feedback to clinicians or agencies regarding patient progress the benefits of treatment may be increased. Aside from their commonalities, much is to be learned from the varying ways with which these systems gather information and provide feedback to clinicians or health care managers. The methods vary both as a function of the sociopolitical climate of the country in which they were developed and of the personal preferences and assumptions of the developers. An articulation of these differences can be of interest to health care managers and to psychotherapy researchers.