Measuring quality and safety in Norwegian health care—time for a change?

Despite growing awareness of quality and patient safety risks, and significant effort to improve, progress is hard to measure (Goeschel et al, 2010). According to the OECD Health at a Glance 2009 report Norway is among the OECD countries with the highest per inhabitant expenditures on health care. However the system seems to deliver average quality. There is argued for improved knowledge about the performance of the Norwegian health care system. The existing national quality indicator system is criticized for being fragmented and lacking of 1) a comprehensive and coherent framework, 2) transparency, and 3) shortcomings in the methodological approach (Rygh et al., 2010).