Some 1,700 acute care episodes were studied to assess the outcomes in terms of the extent to which patients regained their usual functional status. Involving active follow-up of each patient, the study serves as a prototype for measuring several components of quality of care including actual outcomes, patient expectation of outcome, physician expectation of outcome, and patient satisfaction with outcome and care. Because this study was conducted in a family practice residency training setting, we hope that it will serve as a model of how such information may be used to increase residents' sensitivity to the course of illness commonly seen in primary care, and to encourage the residents to set expectations for the care they give.