Evaluación de la calidad en la atención en salud. Un estudio de caso

In Colombia, the social security law makes that health institutions face among them the competiveness challenge in order to survive in the market, in which the quality in services is a determinant factor. Based on the quality concept from the triple approach Donabedian and the DOPRI pattern proposed by Galán Mosquera, a descriptive, exploratory study was carried out in six public hospitals at a central Department of this country. This study aimed to assess the following services: Nutrition and Dietetics Physiotherapy, Respiratory Therapy and Phonoaudiology, which were chosen because they are basic in giving an integral and qualified service and also because they have hardly never bee evaluated in the national context. The results show a very worrying situation; it was found a quality assessment ranging from non-satisfactory to uncertain (Physiotherapy was the only one that just deserved some satisfactory opinions), as well as a very strong trend to redeem the lack of services through academic support agreements, carrying the service to ethic problems and, obviously to the detriment of the quality. It was also possible to confront and improve a methodology that can not only be used at the evaluated hospitals but also at all hospitals, as part of the continuous improvement strategies for the sanitary organizations