We argue that health care quality has an important impact on economic inequality and on saving behavior. We exploit district-wide variability in health care quality provided by the Italian universal public health system to identify the effect of quality on income inequality, health inequality and precautionary saving. We find that in lower quality districts there is greater income and health di...

OBJECTIVES To identify the desirable characteristics of review criteria for quality improvement and to determine how they should be selected. BACKGROUND Review criteria are the elements against which quality of care is assessed in quality improvement. Use of inappropriate criteria may impair the effectiveness of quality improvement activities and resources may be wasted in activities that fai...

BACKGROUND Organisational culture is increasingly recognised as important for provision of high-quality long-term care. We undertook this study to measure organisational culture in residential aged care facilities in two Australian states. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Cross-sectional observational study in 21 residential aged care facilities in Western Australia (n = 14) and Queensland (n =...

Nursing as a profession has the responsibility to society to protect and promote the health of individuals and communities. The intent of this conceptual model is to center the patient in his or her environment while allowing qualified, expert health professionals to provide timely, effective, cost-efficient care within their levels of competence and expertise. Significant shortages of register...

Strategies for assisting health workers to modify and improve skills: Developing quality health care-a process of change Developing quality health care

Background Disease epidemics and shortage of healthcare professionals present major challenges for developing countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically the health related goals (4, 5 and 6). In these countries, the explosive growth of mobile communications offers a new opportunity for the promotion of quality healthcare. There is a growing body of evidence tha...

Physicians are often asked to assume leadership roles in their practices, hospitals, and academic departments. These positions can be excellent leverage points for improvement of health care quality. To make optimal use of these opportunities, physicians must learn how to lead. This paper is intended to be a primer for physicians who are asked to lead and want to learn how to lead well. A body ...

BACKGROUND Interprofessional care ensures high quality healthcare. Effective interprofessional collaboration is required to enable interprofessional care, although within the acute care  hospital setting interprofessional collaboration is considered suboptimal. The integration of nurse practitioner roles into the acute and long-term care settings is influencing enhanced care. What remains unkno...

Throughout the world, countries are experiencing shortages of health care workers. Policy-makers and system managers have developed a range of methods and initiatives to optimise the available workforce and achieve the right number and mix of personnel needed to provide high-quality care. Our literature review found that such initiatives often focus more on staff types than on staff members' sk...