Editorial

Citation

Downey-Ennis, K. (2010), "Editorial", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2010.06223daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 23, Issue 4

The papers contained within this issue of the IJHCQA will give the readers new insights into how practitioners internationally are developing new methods to improve processes to optimize hospitals, methods to increase the quality of physician-patient communication, how to deal with complaints in the psychiatric sector, the management of anticoagulant use and finally pointers on how to build the capacity for serviced users to be involved in research.

Van Sambeek et al. systematically reviewed the literature on various types of models to support managerial decision making with the findings offering managers an insight into the characteristics of various types of decision support models together with the different types of situations in which they are used.

A computer based analysis system is explained by Katsuyama et al. in Japan to measure the quality of the physician-patient communication process which the author argues is of importance in assessing patient outcomes. The model described quantifies the quality of the consultations process and is a promising tool for evaluating the communication process between the two parties in both the clinical and educational settings.

Haw et al., in their paper, argue that little is known about complaints from psychiatric patients and that complaints should be seen as a valuable source of organizational learning for mental health services. They undertook a descriptive study in a specialist hospital of complaints with the findings detailing the nature of patient complaints together with actions to improve patient services as a result of the findings.

An evaluation of near-patient testing of anticoagulant control in general practice was undertaken by Edgeworth and Coles and the results achieved were compared to those published in several other papers. The authors concluded that by using near patient testing practices can offer patients a more acceptable service and that the instant results allows information to be given about dosing and testing interval at the time of consultation which in turn gives the patient more opportunity for discussion of any issues.

Minogue and Girdlestone studied the role of service user and carer involvement in NHS research and described the nature of this involvement in three specialist mental health Trusts. The findings conclude that service user involvement is essential if research is to support the development of health services that clearly reflect the needs of the service user and impact positively on service quality.

Finally, Basu et al. undertook a study to critically analyse the data regarding the different clinical quality performance indicators mentioned in The Intelligent Board (2006) and to determine whether the results could be reliably used to interpret a hospital’s performance. The author hypothesised that there was a perception of an unprecedented increase in the number of health care performance indicators in the NHS. The conclusion reached was that it is not possible to introduce a system that produces an overall outcome devoid of internal variety and that for indicators to be a useful guide, they must reliably index the variable factors inherent in the healthcare system.

I hope and trust that the papers presented here will assist practitioners in their quest to improve healthcare systems and services in their everyday practice and I would like to thank the authors for sharing their work.

Kay Downey-EnnisCo-Editor