Selected determinants of the quality of hospital care. I. Accreditation and effectiveness of managing a therapeutic team.

In order to provide a higher level of the quality of medical services an external process of evaluation of health care units called accreditation has been implemented. Obtaining the Quality Certificate by a hospital greatly depends on knowledge and engagement of the staff in the accreditation process as well as on the effective managing of therapeutic teams by ward head/managers of clinics. Therefore, studies were undertaken to discover the knowledge of requirements concerning the possession of the Quality Certificate and how managing therapeutic teams is evaluated by physicians and nurses from hospitals with and without accreditation. The study covered 560 physicians and nurses from 4 hospitals with accreditation and 17 hospitals which did not possess the Quality Certificate. The research method was a diagnostic survey, and the technique--a questionnaire form. The material was subject to statistical analysis. Significant differences were observed in the knowledge of requirements concerning the possessing of the Quality Certificate between the staff of hospitals with accreditation, compared to the respondents from health units without the Quality Certificate. Respondents from hospitals without accreditation evaluated the effectiveness of managing therapeutic teams by ward head/managers of clinics in more negative terms, compared to the staff of hospitals which possessed the Quality Certificate.