Bringing MOCHA Lessons to Your Service

Identifying the qualities of primary care that have the potential to produce optimal health outcomes is only half the story. The MOCHA project has explored how to transfer these to other national contexts, but also which successful components should be transferred. It is important to assess the population criteria of the identified...

Better experiences with quality of care predict well-being of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the Netherlands

Objective: This study was conducted to (1) identify improvements in care quality and well-being of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the Netherlands and (2) investigate the longitudinal relationship between these factors. Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted among patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive...

Choosing between hospitals: The influence of the experiences of other patients

Objective. Publicly available information on hospital performance is increasing, with the aim to support consumers when choosing a hospital. Besides general hospital information and information on outcomes of care, there is increasing availability of systematically collected information on experiences of other patients. The aim of this study was...

De opkomst van geboortecentra en hun rol in de zorg [Are birth centres the right answer to the current problems in maternity care?]

Birth centres are a relatively new development in the Netherlands. Home birth is still very common but an increasing number of women prefer the ‘safety’ of a more clinical environment, especially since the publication of and all the media attention about the Euro-Peristat data on perinatal deaths. The Steering Group ‘Pregnancy and Childbirth’...

Severe maternal morbidity among immigrant women in the Netherlands: Patients' perspectives

This 2006 study investigated ethnicity-related factors contributing to sub-standard maternity care and the effects on severe maternal morbidity among immigrant women in the Netherlands. In-depth interviews were carried out with 40 immigrant and 10 native Dutch women. The immigrant women reported that health care providers often paid insufficient...

The relative importance of quality of care information when choosing a hospital for surgical treatment: A hospital choice experiment

Objective: To assess the impact of quality of care and other hospital information on patients' choices between hospitals. Methods: 665 former surgical patients were invited to respond to an Internet-based questionnaire including a choice-based conjoint analysis. Each patient was presented with 12 different comparisons of 2 hospitals, with each...

Preferenties voor zorg en zorgverzekeraars [Preferences health and health insurers]

Managed competition implies that health insurers negotiate with care suppliers about price and quality of purchased care. An important precondition for workable competition is that consumers are sensitive to both differences in price and quality. Little is known, however, about consumer preferences with respect to medical care purchased by...

An European concerted action investigating the validity of perinatal mortality as an outcome indicator for the quality of antenatal and perinatal care

In this paper the concepts, objectives, design, and data analysis procedures of the EuroNatal study are described. This sutdy started in 1996 and is a concerted action including 14 countries in Europe. The EuroNatal study aims at determining the validity of national perinatal mortality rates as an outcome indicator for the quality of antenatal...

Quality assurance issues and PACS

Quality assessment and assurance is a growing concern in all areas of health care. The concern is fueled by a body of evidence that indicates that quality of care is not optimal, and in many instances, is unacceptably low. Although different standards for quality have been proposed, health outcome is the ultimate standard, since improving health...