TY - BOOK ID - 134101677 TI - Improving healthcare quality in Europe : characteristics, effectiveness and implementation of different strategies PY - 2019 PB - Paris : OECD Publishing, DB - UniCat KW - Outcome assessment (Medical care) KW - Medical policy. KW - Medical care KW - Cost effectiveness. KW - Standards. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134101677 AB - Quality improvement initiatives take many forms, from the creation of standards for healthprofessionals, health technologies and health facilities, to audit and feedback, and fromfostering a patient safety culture to public reporting and paying for quality. For policymakerswho struggle to decide which initiatives to prioritise for investment, understandingthe potential of different quality strategies in their unique settings is key. This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and providesrecommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers tounderstand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies andcombinations of strategies. Quality of care is a political priority and an important contributor to population health. Thisbook acknowledges that "quality of care" is a broadly defined concept, and that it is oftenunclear how quality improvement strategies fit within a health system, and what theirparticular contribution can be. This volume elucidates the concepts behind multiple elementsof quality in healthcare policy (including definitions of quality, its dimensions, related activities, and targets), quality measurement and governance and situates it all in the wider context ofhealth systems research. By so doing, this book is designed to help policy-makers prioritizeand align different quality initiatives and to achieve a comprehensive approach to qualityimprovement. ER -