What distinguishes clinical governance from quality assurance in a military hospital system?

• A. Quality assurance provides strategic oversight of care quality and safety.
• B. Clinical governance audits performance metrics and drives improvement.
• C. Clinical governance provides strategic oversight of care quality and safety; quality assurance conducts audits, tracks performance metrics, and drives improvement.
• D. Quality assurance handles budgeting and logistics.

Answer: (C)

Clinical governance and quality assurance operate in tandem but at different levels. Clinical governance provides strategic oversight of care quality and safety—setting the direction, policies, accountability, and leadership structures that shape how care is delivered across the organization. Quality assurance, on the other hand, focuses on the hands-on work of evaluating care through audits, tracking performance metrics, and driving improvements based on those findings. The strongest description merges both roles: clinical governance offers the strategic framework for quality and safety, while quality assurance conducts audits, monitors metrics, and steers improvement efforts. Descriptions that place strategic oversight solely in quality assurance are incomplete, and assigning budgeting and logistics to quality assurance misrepresents its focus.