Telemedicine refers to the delivery and provision of health care and consultative services to individual patients and the transmission of information related to care, over distance, using telecommunications technologies.Quality of service is a critical determinant of telemedicine performance. In addition, it can also be a critical factor in determining long-term viability of a telemedicine serv...

OBJECTIVE Family caregivers often accompany patients to medical visits; however, it is unclear whether caregivers rate the quality of patients' care similarly to patients. This study aimed to (1) quantify the level of agreement between patients' and caregivers' reports on the quality of patients' care and (2) determine how the level of agreement varies by caregiver and patient characteristics. ...

Twenty-one million Americans are limited in English proficiency (LEP), but little is known about the effect of medical interpreter services on health care quality. Asystematic literature review was conducted on the impact of interpreter services on quality of care. Five database searches yielded 2,640 citations and a final database of 36 articles, after applying exclusion criteria. Multiple stu...

As consumers, payers, and regulatory agencies require evidence regarding health care qualities the demand for process of care measures will grow. Although outcome measures of quality represent the desired end results of health care, validated process of care measures provide an important additional element to quality improvement efforts, as they illuminate exactly which provider actions could b...

Radical thinking about the design of industrial processes over the last century has greatly improved the quality and efficiency of manufacturing and services. Similar methods to deliver higher quality health care at lower cost would be extremely valuable. In health care, however, we must also consider how patients feel about the processes and the extent to which they are able to exercise meanin...

BACKGROUND Severe insufficiencies in the supply and inequities in the distribution of health care professionals, facilities, and services create conditions for limited quality of care and lack of trust - even violent conflict - between clinicians and patients in the People's Republic of China. Alongside structural reform, shared decision-making (SDM) may help meet the needs and advance the goal...

BACKGROUND A multiple-strategy community intervention, known as National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched in India to improve the availability of and access to better-quality healthcare, especially for rural, poor mothers and children. The final goal of the intervention is to reduce maternal and child health inequalities across geographical areas, socioeconomic status groups, and sex of th...

Implementation science is a set of tools, principles, and methodologies that can be used to bring scientific evidence into action, improve health care quality and delivery, and improve public health. As the burden of cancer increases in low- and middle-income countries, it is important to plan cancer control programs that are both evidence based and delivered in ways that are feasible, cost-eff...

Surgery is at a crossroads of complexity. However, there is a potential path toward patient safety. One such course is to leverage computer and robotic assist techniques in the reduction and interception of error in the perioperative environment. This white paper attempts to facilitate the road toward realizing that promise by outlining a research agenda. The paper will briefly review the curre...

Background: This study investigated quality of healthcare services from patients' perspectives and its relationship with patient safety culture and nurse-physician professional communication. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 surgery patients and 101 nurses caring them in a public hospital in Tabriz-Iran. Data were collected using the service quality measurement scale (SE...