A conceptual framework for the OECD Health Care Quality Indicators Project

ISSUES: The Health Care Quality Indicator (HCQI) Project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is aimed at developing a set of indicators for comparing the quality of health care across OECD member countries, requires a balanced conceptual framework that outlines the main concepts and domains of performance that should be captured for the current and subsequent phases of the project. ADDRESSING THE ISSUES: This article develops a conceptual framework for the OECD's HCQI Project. It first argues that developing such a framework should start by addressing the question, 'performance of what-and to what ends?' We identify at least two different major classes of frameworks: (i)…