Quality indicators of dental health care in Serbia

Abstract

Summary Health care has witnessed considerable progresses toward quality improvement over the past two decades. More precisely, there have been global efforts aimed to improve this aspect of health care along with experts and decision-makers reaching the consensus that quality is one of the most significant dimensions and features of health system. Quality health care implies highly efficient resource use in order to meet patient’s needs in terms of prevention and treatment. Quality health care is provided in a safe way while meeting patients’ expectations and avoiding unnecessary losses. The mission of continuous improvement in quality of care is to achieve safe and reliable health care through mutual efforts of all the key supporters of health system to protect patients’ interests. A systematic approach to measuring the process of care through quality indicators (QIs) poses the greatest challenge to continuous quality improvement in health care. Quality indicators are quantitative indicators used for monitoring and evaluating quality of patient care and treatment, continuous professional development (CPD), maintaining waiting lists, patients and staff satisfaction, and patient safety.

Doctor-patient communication in medicine and dental medicine

“…There has been a necessity to assess the quality of communication in dental settings. This is carried out by patient satisfaction surveys which role is to measure and monitor patient satisfaction with dental services in primary care institutions, which was first introduced in Serbia in 2010 by distributing a questionnaire that evaluates whether a dentist provides clear explanations of procedures, among other factors contributing to providing quality health care [19]. This is in accordance with the fact that being able to provide proper and comprehensive information is of utter importance in doctor/ dentist-patient relationship [35].…”

“…However, praxis literature has insisted on introducing a more patient-centred model that would help doctors reach more precise diagnoses, treat their patients more successfully and achieve better overall results [13]. Nowadays, patient-centredness is recognized as one of the essential constituents of continuous quality improvement (CQI) [19]. Fortin et al suggested the socalled biopsychosociological model that respects patients' needs and promotes changing of some important health and lifestyle habits [20].…”

“…Međutim, u literaturi koja se bavi medicinskom praksom već neko vreme se insistira na modelu koji je u većoj meri usmeren na pacijenta i koji bi pomogao lekarima da uspostave što preciznije dijagnoze, pruže što bolju negu pacijentima i ostvare što bolje rezultate u svakom smislu. Danas se usmerenost na pacijenta prepoznaje kao jedan od osnovnih elemenata kontinuiranog unapređenja kvaliteta zdravstvene zaštite [19]. Tako su Fortin i autori predložili tzv.…”

“…Stoga, postoji potreba za procenom kvaliteta komunikacije u stomatološkoj praksi. Ovo je jedan od aspekata koji se ocenjuje u okviru anketa koje su u Srbiji prvi put uvedene 2010. godine, a kojima se ispituje zadovoljstvo pacijenata stomatološkim uslugama u institucijama primarne zdravstvene zaštite, a jedna od stavki tiče se pružanje jasnih instrukcija [19]. Ovo je u skladu sa stavom da je pružanje odgovarajućih i podrobnih informacija od izrazitog značaja za odnos između lekara/stomatologa i pacijenta [35].…”

Connection of Conic and Cylindrical Map Projections

“…Apart from Monmonier [1], several other authors mention that cylindrical and azimuthal projections can be interpreted as limiting cases of conic projections [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. However, there are few attempts to prove this claim [2,[12][13][14][15][16].…”