Quality improvement in healthcare: Towards to integrated care models in EU

Abstract

Quality improvement in healthcare consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to a measurable improvement in healthcare services. Most important goals for improvement in healthcare are safe, effective, patient-centres, timely, efficient, equitable healthcare. Definition of the integrated care includes initiatives seeking to improve outcomes of care by overcoming issues of fragmentation through co-ordination of services of providers along the continuum of care. Different countries of EU Member States are at different stages in the development of integrated care systems. Most countries reported continuously working on several initiatives to strengthen integration and coordination of care, such as pilot projects, implemented targeted programmes and strategies and adopted methods for cooperation. Many countries have taken initiatives on legislation, reorganisation and reimbursement systems. Integrated care can be seen to be both, a design of healthcare and a framework to achieve person-centred, efficient and safe care. Only a small number of EU Member States have developed specific indicator sets to assess integrated care. Measuring the performance of integrated care has to take into account the objectives of a health system and also needs to reflect the complexity of integrated care systems.

Unapređenje kvaliteta u zdravstvu sastoji se od sistematskih i kontinuiranih aktivnosti, koje vode do merljivog poboljšanja zdravstvenih usluga. Najvažniji ciljevi za poboljšanje zdravstvene zaštite su sigurna, efikasna, usmerena ka pacijentu, pravovremena, pravična zdravstvena zaštita. Definicija integrisane zdravstvene zaštite uključuje inicijative koje nastoje da poboljšaju zdravstvene ishode, tako što će se prevazići problemi fragmentacije kroz koordinaciju usluga pružalaca usluga tokom pružanja zdravstvene zaštite. Različite zemlje članice Evropske unije nalaze se u različitim fazama razvoja integrisanih sistema zdravstvene zaštite. Većina zemalja ima usvojen koncept kontinuiranog rada na nekoliko inicijativa za jačanje integracije i koordinacije zdravstvene zaštite, kao što su pilot projekti, implementirani ciljani programi i strategije i usvojene metode za saradnju. Mnoge zemlje su preduzele inicijative u izmeni legislative kao i reorganizacije politika refundacije troškova zadravstvene zaštite. Integrisana zdravstvena zaštita se može smatrati i dizajnom zdravstvenog sistema i okvira za postizanje efikasne, sigurne zdravstvene zaštite, usmerene ka pojedincu Samo mali broj zemalja članica EU je razvio specifične indikatore za procenu integrisane zdravstvene zaštite. Merenje performansi integrisane zdravstvene zaštite mora da obuhvati ciljeve zdravstvenog sistema, a takođe treba da odražava složenost integrisanih sistema zdravstvene zaštite.