Measuring quality of care for essential hypertension.

Published guidelines set the standard of care for essential hypertension. The authors offer an audit tool based on national standards to evaluate how actual treatment measures up to the published standard of care. The measure of quality of care is based on three assumptions: Recording essential observations is an integral part of optimal health care What is recorded took place and what is not recorded did not take place If documentation of essential events agrees with audit criteria, the outcome of care will most likely be optimal