An integrative overview of the quality dimension: marketing implications for the consumer-oriented health care organization

Can social media be used as a hospital quality improvement tool?

Many hospitals wish to improve their patients' experience of care. To learn whether social media could be used as a tool to engage patients and to identify opportunities for hospital quality improvement (QI), we solicited patients' narrative feedback on the Baystate Medical Center Facebook page during a 3-week period in 2014. Two investigators used directed qualitative content analysis to code comments and descriptive statistics to assess the frequency of selected codes and themes. We identified common themes, including: (1) comments about staff (17/37 respondents, 45.9%); (2) comments about specific departments (22/37, 59.5%); (3) comments on technical aspects of care, including perceived errors and inattention to pain control (9/37, 24.3%); and (4) comments describing the hospital physical plant, parking, and amenities (9/37, 24.3%). A small number (n = 3) of patients repeatedly responded, accounting for 30% (45/148) of narratives. Although patient feedback on social media could help to drive hospital QI efforts, any potential benefits must be weighed against the reputational risks, the lack of representativeness among respondents, and the volume of responses needed to identify areas of improvement.

Qualité des soins dispensés en unités de courte durée gériatriques: la perspective des patients

The aim of the study is to identify criteria that frail elderly patients refer to when they appreciate the quality of care of Geriatric assessment units. Twenty-one patients recently released from six Geriatric assessment units in Montreal participated in face-to-face interviews (n = 17) or in a Focus Group (n = 4). Patients reported 56 different criteria grouped into four main dimensions of quality: the environment of care, the attitude and the technical competence of professionals and the results of care. The environment of care consists of physical resources and person related qualities. Comments on the attitude and the technical competence of professionals related mostly to the nurses and physicians. Some quality criteria reported by elderly patients are similar to those reported by patients in various acute care units while others are specific to the frailty of their condition. This study provides health care professionals with rich and useful information on how elderly patients perceive the quality of various components of care in Geriatric assessment units.

Patient's evaluation of dietetic care: testing a cognitive-attitude approach

The study of patients' attitudes is an important subject because the success of many medical programs is linked to it. We have used a cognitive attitude theory -- the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), to study how patients form an evaluation of dietetic care. Respondents answered one questionnaire before (46% response) and one questionnaire after (60% response) their first consultation with a primary care dietitian. Patients rated their pre-test quality expectations and post-test quality evaluations of each of 28 distinctive aspects of care. They also rated the relative importance of each aspect. According to the ELM, people of high motivation and capacity to process information do so in an elaborate way. From this model five hypotheses are derived. Patients who elaborate are assumed to show a more differentiated pattern in (1) their quality expectations, (2) their rating of importance and (3) their quality judgements of distinctive aspects of dietetic care than people who do not elaborate. Furthermore, they are expected to show (4) a weaker association between quality expectation and quality judgement, and (5) relatively more extreme quality judgements. The three first hypotheses are accepted, the evidence of the last two is still inconclusive.

Quality assurance in health care. From a traditional towards a modern approach

This review article is about some recent developments in quality assurance in health care. A traditional and a modern approach are distinguished. The traditional approach is marked by a medical perspective and quality is defined as a property of medical care. Development of standards and criteria and inspection of conformance to them is the guiding principle for traditional medical quality assurance. The modern approach is marked by a strong influence of industrial principles on medical quality assurance. Industrial principles provide a new theory upon which medical quality assurance can be based. Aspects of care which are associated with the perceived quality are identified and are legitimate objects of medical quality assurance. The guiding principle is to influence experiences of (internal or external) customers by modelling the care according to clarified expectations. The university hospital of Maastricht provides an example of how modern principles of quality assurance are put into practice.

A performance-based quality evaluation system for preferred provider organizations

This article describes a performance-based quality evaluation program developed by a partnership of insurers for a nationwide preferred provider organization (PPO) which uses indicators to monitor for practice deviations from PPO standards representing four components of patient care--administrative efficiency, patient satisfaction, medical practice standards, and clinical outcome. Quality improvement efforts to eliminate deviant practices through indirect organizational strategies and direct communication with preferred physicians are also described. The program's strengths are its effective use of available data, its potential application to other organizations with a loosely connected network of providers, and its ability to simultaneously monitor care received over time by individual patients in various settings (hospitals, physician offices).