This new comprehensive resource addresses the needs of physicians, medical students, and other health care professionals for current information about medical quality management. In reviewing the key principles and methods that comprise the current state of medical quality management in U.S. health care, this text provides a concise summary of utilization management including general approaches and methods, support systems, regulatory constructs, and common outcomes. Medical Quality Management: Theory and Practice describes the current state of global networks and computing technologies, and provides an overview of important legislation, regulation, and case law. This valuable resource also emphasizes the importance of continually evaluating cost-quality interactions as a basis for improving performance, budgeting, and policymaking by health care organizations, and focuses on the application of medical ethics in a health care system that is increasingly driven by issues of economics, consumer demand, and availability of medical information and technologies. Key chapter titles include Patient Safety, Quality Measurement, and External QI. Complete with case studies, executive summaries, learning objectives, and more figures and tables, this is a necessary guide for all executives and medical directors, academics and students, as well as all physicians and other health professionals in clinical practice.