Quest for quality health service
Three imperative prerequisites for health care management are access, cost and quality. Among these, the quality is the most crucial. If the quality is not up to the mark, patients do not accept it. They will never seek the service no matter how accessible and cost effective it is.
But in a country like Bangladesh people do not have many options. Most of them cannot access private services because cost comes into play. They have to depend on health care service rendered by the government even if the quality of service is not satisfactory. That is why quality issue in public hospitals is very important.
On the other hand, patients who have money are paying more for public and private services, but most of the time, they do not experience any improvement in service quality. Patients have the tendency to compare the services with that of those countries that have ensured higher quality in health service.
Improving the quality of health care is becoming a concern for patients, government, managers and professionals working in our country. Quality management increases the health status of individuals and the population and thus brings in social and economic benefits.
Four key areas need to be secured in order to ensure quality management in the operational level of health care service.
1. Ensuring adequate number of managers at all levels of the health system
2. Ensuring appropriate competencies of managers
3. Creating better support systems
4. Creating an enabling working environment
These four conditions are closely inter-related. Strengthening one without the others is not likely to work.
Although there are increasing pressures to improve quality, many challenges are there as well. But it is essential for the Government and Non-Government stakeholders to realise the essence of new dimensions of quality management which markedly different and undoubtedly superior than traditional approach of quality assurance.
Recently, James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University conducted a short course on Quality Management in Health Systems. The course was attended by 17 health service managers about half of whom were Government employer.
The writer is a Research Associate at James P. Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University.
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