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 p...

BACKGROUND The Institute of Medicine recommends Survivorship Care Plans (SCPs) for all cancer survivors. However, it is unclear whether certain patient groups may or may not benefit from SCPs. OBJECTIVE The aim was to assess whether the effects of an automatically generated paper SCP on patients' satisfaction with information provision and care, illness perceptions, and health care utilizatio...

One of the mechanisms that is implemented in the cost containment wave in the health care sectors in western countries is the definition, by the third-party payer, of a set of preferred providers. The insured patients have different access rules to such providers when ill. The rules specify the co-payments and the indemnity the patient obtains if patronizing an out-of-plan care provider. We pro...

BACKGROUND The involvement of patients and the public in healthcare has grown significantly in recent decades and is documented in health policy documents internationally. Many benefits of involving these groups in primary care planning have been reported. However, these benefits are rarely felt by those considered marginalised in society and they are often excluded from participating in the pr...

BACKGROUND As in most fields of health care, societal and political changes encourage suppliers of long-term care to put their clients at the center of care and service provision and become more responsive towards client needs and requirements. However, the diverse, multiple and dynamic nature of demand for long-term care complicates the movement towards demand-based care provision. This paper ...

churchill and churchill’s editorial discusses negative (health) effects of commercialism in the provision of health care and nutrition. three parts of their argument are commented: the claim that the fundamental problem of markets is the decomposition of the whole into parts (“reductionism”); the call for individual responsibility; and the notion of holism. on the three aspects the commentary c...

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...