ISQua’s 33rd International Conference on quality and safety in health care

The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) is delighted to collaborate with the Japan Council for Quality Health Care (JQ) to host the 33rd International scientific meeting on quality and safety in health care in Tokyo, Japan 16 - 19 October 2016. The theme is "Change and Sustainability in Healthcare Quality: the Future Challenges"

For more information, click here: TOKYO 2016.

Building Competencies for Integrated Care: Defining the Landscape

As the discussion in integrated care moves from "what needs to be done?" to "how to do we achieve sustainable change?" one of the key questions is "how do we get people to change?". Electronic health records, budgetary processes and governance structures are all important building blocks but achieving the transformation required will ultimately stand or fall on changing how we act. Therefore at the heart of this complexity are two more simple, yet profound questions: how do we learn? And who do we learn from?

UN High-Level Meeting on universal health coverage

On 23 September 2019, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on universal health coverage (UHC). This meeting, held under the theme Universal Health Coverage: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World, aims to accelerate progress towards UHC, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The meeting will result in a political declaration on universal health coverage endorsed by Heads of State. Among other key attributes, the declaration recognizes the need for health systems to be integrated and people-centred, with primary health care being the cornerstone of a sustainable health system for UHC and health-related SDGs.

Approval of political resolution on Universal Health Coverage in UN High-Level meeting

World leaders came together for the United Nations High Level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC): Moving Together to Build a Healthier World, held at the UN General Assembly in New York, on Monday, 23 September 2019. This was the first time the UN had called for a HLM devoted to UHC and the encounter provided an unprecedented opportunity to mobilize the global community and secure political commitment from Heads of State and Government to accelerate progress toward achieving UHC by 2030. As a result UN Member States have adopted the most comprehensive set of health commitments ever adopted at this level, the political declaration on UHC. Among other key attributes, the declaration recognizes the need for health systems to be integrated and people-centred, with primary health care being the cornerstone of a sustainable health system for UHC and health-related SDGs.

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Access the political declaration here.

End-line Assessment of Integrated People-Centered Health Services in Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Since 2013, the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project has been working closely with the South African Department of Health (DOH) and its partners in five provinces to accelerate the reduction of morbidity and mortality through improving access, utilization, and satisfaction with essential HIV services. Drawing on its partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) Service Delivery and Safety Department to promote people-centered care as an essential pillar of health service quality, ASSIST secured support from the USAID Office of Health Systems to pilot WHO’s global framework on integrated people-centered health services (IPCHS) in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan District in Eastern Cape Province.

The pilot project consisted of a baseline assessment to harvest patient, provider, and decision maker perceptions and satisfaction regarding integration and patient centeredness in HIV services at onset of the project; training in quality improvement and IPCHS concepts and methodology; facility-based identification ...

Using an evidence-based safety approach to develop China’s road safety strategies

Road accidents are a major global public safety and health problem. Presently, many countries such as China urgently need to find better strategies to improve their road safety. This paper has two key objectives, which are: (i) to propose potential solutions to improve China’s road safety, and (ii) to provide China and other countries with helpful evidence for their future road safety.

Addressing safety risks in integrated care programs for older people living at home: a scoping review

Many older people live at home, often with complex and chronic health and social care needs. Integrated care programs are increasingly being implemented as a way to better address these needs. To support older people living at home, it is also essential to maintain their safety. Integrated care programs have the potential to address a wide range of risks and problems that could undermine older people’s ability to live independently at home. The aim of this scoping review is to provide insight into how integrated care programs address safety risks faced by older people living at home - an area that is rather underexplored.

Supporting Older People to Live Safely at Home – Findings from Thirteen Case Studies on Integrated Care Across Europe

While many different factors can undermine older people’s ability to live safely at home, safety as an explicit aspect of integrated care for older people living at home is an underexplored topic in research. Integrated care services across Europe address older people’s safety in many ways. Further integration of health and social care solutions is necessary to enhance older people’s perceptions of safety.

Putting patients first: development of a patient advocate and general practitioner-informed model of patient-centred care

Patients, providers and health care organisations benefit from an increased understanding and implementation of patient-centred care (PCC) by general practitioners (GPs). This study aimed to evaluate and advance a theoretical model of PCC developed in consultation with practising GPs and patient advocates.

“To be seen” – older adults and their relatives’ care experiences given by a geriatric mobile team (GerMoT)

The proportion of older people in the population has increased globally and has thus become a challenge in health and social care. There is good evidence that care based on comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is superior to the usual care found in acute hospital settings; however, the evidence is scarcer in community-dwelling older people.The participants of this study found the care easily accessible, and that contacts could be taken according to needs by health care professionals who knew them. This is in accordance with person-centred care as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for older people in need of integrated care.