In examining the preface of our first book, it is increases needed. The Deming philosophy empha apparent that the editorial comments made in sizes that quality is never fully achieved: process 1994 are even more pertinent in today's cost- improvement is never ending. constrained healthcare environment than when But, what is quality? Without defining, David first written. We repeat them in part. Garvin makes the point that "in its original form, This is a time in history when the concept of quality activities were reactive and inspecti- quality is reaching new highs in terms of public oriented; today, quality related activities have awareness. Articles describing quality, CQI, qual broadened and are seen as essential for strategic ity tools, critical success factors, failures, and success" [1]. How can the broad context of quality lessons learned appear in local newspapers, trade be applied to the diverse aspects of ESRD? journals, scientific periodicals, and professional Furthermore, although far from a new concept, publications on a daily basis, yet implementation Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) has taken of a quality system in many hospital units is its place as a dominant theme in many industries. approached with caution and the basic tenants of CQI is more broadly applicable, both in concept quality systems and CQI continue to be misunder and execution, to service as well as manufacturi- stood. based operations.

Inhalt
Evidence-based medicine as a strategy for improving the quality of clinical decision making for dialysis patients.- A continuous quality improvement paradigm for health care networks.- Process for initiating and maintaining continuous quality improvement in the ESRD setting.- Choice of statistical models for assessing the clinical outcomes of the efforts to provide high quality care for the ESRD patient.- Assigning severity indices to outcomes.- The role of quality assurance in preventing legal actions.- Quality Criteria for the Clinical Record.- The impact of global vigilance reporting requirements on the quality of dialysis products and services.- Regulatory environment and government impact on the quality of dialysis products.- Global spectrum of quality assurance in the provision of dialysis.- Clinical Quality of the Patient at Onset of Dialysis Treatment.- Patient and Therapy Perspectives: Choosing the Patient Is better Worse?.- Quality of care in the pre-ESRD period; impact on survival in the first year of dialysis.- Quality of life assurance in hemodialysis.- Hemodialysis in the home and its impact on quality of life.- Selection of adequacy criteria models for hemodialysis.- Water treatment for hemodialysis.- Reuse of dialyzers implications for adequacy of dialysis.- The impact of membrane selection on quality assurance in dialysis.- Selection of transport parameters in judging membrane performance.- Quality in peritoneal dialysis: achieving improving outcomes.- The critical role of prescription management in a peritoneal dialysis program.- Criteria for biocompatibility testing of peritoneal dialysis solutions.- The Impact of Sterilization Methods on the Quality of Peritoneal Dialysis Solutions.- Quality assurance in the treatment of acute renalfailure.- Quality assurance in renal transplantation.