Public policy and quality assurance.

The definition of quality varies widely among different key players in the American health care system. It is important for physicians and other providers to have an understanding of the public policy approach to quality assessment and assurance. Policy analysts use a number of techniques and methods in an attempt to define and balance the interests of individual patients with that of society as a whole. Benefit-cost, cost-effectiveness, and evaluation synthesis methods are used by public policy makers to arrive at rational consideration of the implications of allocation of scarce health care resources. Emergency medicine is on the forefront of many key policy decisions relative to the health care system. As the nation's health safety net, emergency medicine plays an integral and pivotal role in the definition, structure, and function of the health care system. In this regard, it is essential that emergency physicians and emergency medicine organizations play an active and formative role in the rapidly changing health care environment. Understanding conceptual approaches to the public policy approach to the health care system is an important endeavor for leadership in emergency medicine.