Evaluation of physician competency and clinical performance in emergency medicine.

This article (1) provides the background history of assessing health care quality; (2) presents an overview of current interest and importance of measuring physician competency and performance, including requirements related to certifying bodies and those integral to pay-for-performance programs; (3) describes some of the current methods of evaluating the practice performance of emergency physicians, including peer review and use of health care quality measures; and (4) discusses the state of the literature as it pertains to health care quality and individual emergency physician performance.