The Brave New World of Medical Standards of Care

Abstract:     
This article presents a taxonomy of the medical standards of care that are involved in health-care delivery today. Next, it traces the historical evolution of medical standards of care since the early 1980s. Included in this discussion are the origins of the standard-setting movement as well as the developments that led to the way standards of care are currently used by large institutional providers and managed care plans to improve the quality of their health-care services. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the key legal issues that affect how standards of care can be used to improve the health care of patients.

Accepted Paper Series