• Burge ER

• Chiropractic / legislation and jurisprudence
• Chiropractic / standards
• Legislation, Chiropractic
• Open Access Document
• Quality Assurance, Health Care

Legislation governing the health professions has traditionally been drafted with differing regulations and provisions in statute for each profession. This legislation has often been the consequence of seniority or political lobbying, resulting in a disjointed regulatory system, where many professions performed similar procedures. Growing health care awareness by consumers has prompted a greater accountability by the professions. In Ontario, the government addressed this concern by formulating a Health Professions Legislation Review. The review, based upon a new structure to legislate the health professions, required submissions and input from over 200 different groups, including health professions and consumers. The goal was to establish guidelines for the delivery of health care that considered the interests of the public rather than the professions. This impacted directly upon authorized acts, professional self-regulation, shared authority and standards of practice. The ultimate goal being quality assurance. This required attention not only to the methods of delivering health care, but more importantly to measuring its outcome. Chiropractors must recognize that other stakeholders are demanding that their standards be explicitly formulated and be open to public criticism and debate. Standards based upon the “usual and customary practice” are inadequate.

Note: This article has been corrected. See J Can Chiropr Assoc. 1992 March; 36(1): 50.

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