Health care quality improvement in ukmerge hospital: the perspectives of medical staff

The purpose of the study - to determine the perspectives of medical staff in relation to health care quality improvement in Ukmerge Hospital. Methods. Analysis of hospital organizational activity was performed. All physicians and nurses were questioned by an anonymous questionnaire (n=231). 187 of questionnaires were completed and returned by the respondents. The response rate was 76,2 percent. The data was analyzed using statistical package SPSS 10.0 for Windows. The associations between the variables were measured using the Chi-squared test. Results: 63.2 percent of medical staff were informed about the quality tasks in the unit, 46.6 percent of them know the quality tasks in the hospital and 11.8 percent are familiar with the national health care quality legislation. The acknowledgments from the patients and improvement of work conditions, recognition from leaders and colleagues give physicians and nurses (76.3 – 61.8 percent) an important incentive to work better. Professional competency with knowledge improvement (67.4 percent) and personal employee’s responsibility (67.9 percent) were the main value enshrined in the organization. By the opinion of 40.9 percent of respondents, patients can trust absolutely in the services or hospital. Work motivation from leaders is appreciable for every second of respondents. Conclusions. Knowledge of medical staff about the health care service quality improvement system was the most remarkable in the unit. The scheduled inspections were recognized as the main function of local audit group in the hospital. Other tasks of audit group such as analysis of patients’ complaints, implementation of documentation and purposive inspections were significantly better known for physicians than for nurses. The convenient knowledge improvement system and material inducements, decreasing complexity of work and higher safety would be the main factors that motivate medical staff forward the higher quality in practice. Nurses significantly better than physicians qualify professional activity and notice sufficient patients’ supply with treatment and care devices. Physicians are more concerned in high professional qualification and its influence to patients’ satisfaction with care than nurses. Recommendations. A seminar for medical staff is recommended in order to increase the knowledge of physicians and nurses about the national and local policy of health care quality. The purposive meetings with medical staff in practical environment would serve for effective prevention of undesirable events. Motivation system of medical personnel is essential for service improvement