Katsapi Angeliki, Haralampos Karanikas, Kaitelidou Dafni, Thireos Eleftherios, Karaiskou Aggeliki, Tsana Maria Anastasia, Rizos Fotios
Euro-Mediterranean Institute Quality & Safety in Healthcare services, Avedis Donabedian Eleutheriou Venizelou 58, Athens 10678, Greece.
Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, Papasiopoulou 2-4, Lamia 35131, Greece.
Int J Qual Health Care. 2025 Jul 4;37(3). doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzaf068.
According to the World Health Organization, the situational analysis process that establishes the current "state of quality" of a country's health system, is the foundational step to identifying the strategic directions of a National Quality Program for Quality of Care. This analysis that assesses relevant priorities, challenges, capacities, governance structures, and available resources, provides the basis for designing and implementing the appropriate program to support healthcare quality and patient safety improvements. Although there is a number of international standards related to quality and safety control, there is an undeniable need identified for a pragmatic method, incorporating clinical aspects, to determine the minimum required criteria for quality assurance and patient safety. This paper describes the development of a compliance assessment framework for quality and patient safety using a novel methodology covering also country-specific criteria to be utilized at an organizational and national level as a situational analysis tool.
This study outlines the methodology for the development of the Mapping tool for Quality and Patient Safety (MaQPS) and its implementation as a unified framework for assessing quality and patient safety compliance in hospital settings. The criteria integrated within the tool are reference-based and derive from European and national legislation, international patient safety standards as defined by international authoritative organizations (e.g. the World Health Organization), and scientific associations' guidelines. Furthermore, the study presents the validation process including the applied case studies that were used to evaluate functionality, contextual relevance and scalability of the tool.
The Mapping tool for Quality and Patient Safety compliance tool (MaQPS) and its design methodology differ from most approaches to healthcare assessment sets of criteria, as this instrument incorporates patient safety and clinical aspects within a quality assessment framework. The tool provides a systematic approach and a practical and traceable pathway, for identifying gaps and, facilitate benchmarking among healthcare providers. Additionally, it is a unique approach to enable evidence-based decision making in the field of national quality policies in healthcare.
While standardization and third-party inspections enhance quality improvement processes and clinical outcomes, many health systems face significant challenges in treating healthcare needs effectively with qualitative results and positive clinical outcomes. The adoption of MaQPS as a decision-support tool will acquaint health systems with the structured knowledge to build up effective quality and safety national policies in the delivery of care.
根据世界卫生组织的说法，确立一个国家卫生系统当前“质量状况”的形势分析过程，是确定国家医疗质量计划战略方向的基础步骤。该分析评估相关优先事项、挑战、能力、治理结构和可用资源，为设计和实施适当的计划以支持医疗质量和患者安全改进提供依据。尽管有许多与质量和安全控制相关的国际标准，但人们不可否认地需要一种结合临床方面的实用方法，以确定质量保证和患者安全的最低要求标准。本文描述了一种质量和患者安全合规评估框架的开发，该框架使用了一种新颖的方法，还涵盖了在组织和国家层面作为形势分析工具使用的特定国家标准。
本研究概述了质量和患者安全映射工具（MaQPS）的开发方法及其作为评估医院环境中质量和患者安全合规性的统一框架的实施情况。该工具中整合的标准以参考为基础，源自欧洲和国家立法、国际权威组织（如世界卫生组织）定义的国际患者安全标准以及科学协会的指南。此外，该研究还介绍了验证过程，包括用于评估该工具的功能、背景相关性和可扩展性的应用案例研究。
质量和患者安全合规工具（MaQPS）及其设计方法与大多数医疗评估标准集的方法不同，因为该工具将患者安全和临床方面纳入了质量评估框架。该工具提供了一种系统的方法以及一条实用且可追溯的途径，用于识别差距，并促进医疗服务提供者之间的基准比较。此外，它是在国家医疗质量政策领域实现基于证据的决策的独特方法。
虽然标准化和第三方检查可加强质量改进过程和临床结果，但许多卫生系统在以定性结果和积极的临床结果有效满足医疗需求方面面临重大挑战。采用MaQPS作为决策支持工具将使卫生系统了解结构化知识，以便在提供护理方面制定有效的质量和安全国家政策。
