care institutions in Japan began in 1985. That year, a joint committee was established between the Japan Medical Association and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to develop a self-evaluation manual for quality of healthcare institutions by 1989. Although convenient, self-evaluation of the quality of medical care lacks objectiveness and, therefore, the need for thirdparty evaluation was pointe...

The immigration of relatively unskilled workers poses a fundamental problem for liberals. While from the perspective of the economic welfare of natives, the optimal policy would be to admit these aliens as guest workers, this policy would violate liberal ideals. These ideals would treat these workers as equals, entitled to access to citizenship and to the full set of public benefits provided to...

This country case study is part of the Universal Health Coverage Collection. The World Health Organization defines universal health coverage (UHC) as a situation in which all people who need health services receive them, without incurring financial hardship [1]. UHC is currently perceived as a crucial component of sustainable development and listed as one of the possible goals of the post-2015 ...

introduction: european foundation for quality management has designed the efqm model to determine the rate of organization development and excellence and construct ways to achieve organizational excellence. this model is used to compare the current situation of each organization with an ideal organization. the aim of this study was to determine the performance self-assessment scores in selected...

OBJECTIVE To determine the costs of a change in permanent pacemaker implantation policy to later implantation (day 21+) after cardiac transplantation. DESIGN Retrospective review of patient records including duration of temporary pacing, timed of permanent pacemaker implantation, and length of hospital stay for every patient surviving > or = 14 days from November 1990 to August 1995 (period 2...

BACKGROUND Hospitals have a role to play in supporting, protecting and promoting breastfeeding. The aim of this study was to describe hospital breastfeeding policy and practices and breastfeeding rates among mothers attending General Paediatric Outpatient Clinic at a tertiary hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study involving paediatric nurses and doctors, as well ...

BACKGROUND Many older people are vulnerable with multiple health problems and need of extensive care and support for quality of life. The main objective of this study was to explore the older people's perspectives on an "elderly-friendly" hospital. METHODS Hospital was stratified by four domains including government, semi-government, community, and private. We interviewed 33 hospitalized olde...

In fiscal year (FY) 1989, Medicare changed its rules for paying for extremely long or expensive hospital stays called "outliers." We compared outlier payments in FYs 1989 and 1988, after adjusting for other simultaneous policy changes. We found that the new policy succeeded in targeting more outlier payments to the most expensive cases and to the hospitals suffering larger prospective payment s...

The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, practices, and self-reported vaccination status of HCWs at a tertiary Australian hospital, one year after implementation of a HCW vaccination policy. Two cross-sectional telephone surveys were conducted with HCWs at the hospital prior to and one year after HCW vaccination policy implementation. There was a 95% (272/287) response rate...

BACKGROUND In 1995, teaching and public hospitals that are affiliated with the ministry of health and medical education (MOHME) in Iran were granted financial self-sufficiency to practice contract-based relations with insurance organizations. The so-called "hospital autonomy" policy involved giving authority to the insurance organizations to purchase health services. The policy aimed at improvi...