Data Watch

Busy quality professionals never can have too many Internet resources. One site that offers excellent information on health care quality, resource management education, and training and performance improvement is www.brownspath.com. It is the 1999 creation of Brown-Spath & Associates, based in Forest Grove, OR.

FEATURES

The content includes several different categories of resources for health care quality professionals, including:

— Products: A catalogue of health care quality publications available, including a descriptive summary of the content and purchasing information.

— Services: A sample of workshop topics, ranging from conducting credible root-cause analysis of sentinel events to measuring and improving the quality of health information management services. Consultative services are also offered in:

• Hospital case management implementation.
• Performance measurement and improvement.
• Clinical path design and implementation.
• Reactive and proactive error-reduction techniques.

— Free on-line resources: A collection of original articles on health care quality and resource management topics.

— Upcoming workshops: A schedule of planned Brown-Spath workshops.

— Web links: Links to other web resources organized by topic: performance measurement and improvement, managed care/reimbursement, health care report cards, and reducing errors in health care.

COSTS

All use of the site is free of charge, including the popular "Hot Topics," for which more than 1,000 individuals have already registered. The latest news in health care quality management, safety improvement, and other topics of interest is automatically provided to those who sign up on the site’s home page. The company previews each site in advance so that links are only offered to "substantial" sites. Items that may be ordered direct from the web site have purchase prices clearly indicated.

INFORMATION

— Patrice L. Spath, Brown Spath & Associates. Telephone: (503) 357-9185. E-mail: [email protected].