background and objectives: the increasing pressure on health systems to improve quality of health care,require them to develop novel conceptual framework and indices aimed at evaluating decision variables in the contemporary complex community. customer quality is a newly introduced concept addressing capability of patients in contribution to healthcare process and cooperation with healthcare pr...

The purposes of this article are to review the concepts of health services access and utilization and to analyze how these concepts interrelate. Access is a complex concept (often used inaccurately) which changes over time and according to the context. Health services utilization is at the core of health systems functioning. Despite some disagreement, according to this review the prevailing per...

introduction: quality of health services is the rate of achievement to the most desirable resultants of health, so that provided services are effective, efficient, and affordable. thus, quality evaluation can be an important source of information for recognition of problems and favorable plans in provision of treatment services. method: in this cross-sectional study, criteria of quality in hosp...

background: according to quality transformation of services during the time, the quality requirements and standards also change and recognition of these requirements and transformation process can assist in recognizing the quality dimensions of services. the aim of this research was to explain the transformation process, requirements and quality dimensions of services in hospitals.   methods: t...

This paper explores the goals and implementation of reforms introducing choice of and competition among insurers providing statutory health coverage in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In theory, health insurance competition can enhance efficiency in health care administration and delivery only if people have free choice of insurer (consumer mobility), if insurers do not have ...