Perception of health care delivery in Israel: women's voices.

In this article, we describe the results of nine focus groups in which women were asked to discuss their perception of the women's health care delivery system in Israel. The focus groups, held in Israel in 2001, included nearly 150 women with diverse demographic characteristics. This project solicited focused input from women of different ages from the periphery as well as highly populated areas. The responses were categorized into designated themes and are presented here to demonstrate the range of women's feelings toward health care. The qualitative findings of this research show that place of residence affects the women's sense of responsibility for their health and their use of private care. Age was found to affect knowledge and use of health information, the frequency of visits to the doctor, and the general level of satisfaction with the system. These findings are important to improve health care delivery and can serve as a basis for forging policy changes in Israel.