Quality of Care

Authors: John Peabody, Riti Shimkhada, Olusoji Adeyi, Huihui Wang, Edward Broughton, Margaret Kruk

Citation:

Abstract:

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), quality of care—an item mostly ignored a few decades ago—has caught the attention of studies now examining health system priorities once access to care has been addressed. Quality of care matters because it relates directly to outcomes and can receive attention in a shorter time frame than other policy interventions. The updated quality framework describes the urgency, connections, and responsibilities for creating quality infrastructure that ties this responsibility to individual providers through the diseases they address and the patients who access care via various health care platforms. The framework proves applicable across country settings, emphasizing the fundamental role that providers and patients play in determining quality. With the growing evidence base on quality improvement efforts around the globe, renewed hope exists that quality can rapidly see improvement. Successful policies will always remain linked to practice on a disease-by-disease basis and will only occur where health care access proves unquestionable.