Voluntary Review of Quality of Care Peer Review for Patient Safety

Voluntary Review of Quality of Care (VRQC) is a confidential, voluntary, consultative peer review service offered to healthcare institutions by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Institutions may request ACOGʹs VRQC team of practicing, Board-certified obstetricians and gynecologists to visit the institution in order to evaluate the degree to which practice patterns are consistent with published guidelines, and to suggest possible avenues for improvement. Since the VRQC program began in 1986, over 230 site visits have been conducted using a clinically-oriented and evidence-based approach to examine the quality of patient care delivered. In the 20-year experience of VRQC, deficiencies in system function were more commonly cited than individual practitioner problems, confirming the observations of other patient safety projects. Issues identified in the VRQC reviews can serve as needs assessment for designing Continuing Medical Education activities. Services such as VRQC provided by national medical specialty organizations may assist institutions to implement practice guidelines, performance standards, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.