International journal of health care quality assurance
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2010
Referral pathways of patients with gallstones: a potential source of financial waste in the U.K. National Health Service?
Gallstone-related illnesses are one of the most common reasons for emergency hospital admissions, often with serious complications. Standard treatment of uncomplicated gallstone-disease is by laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which can be safely and cost-effectively performed during a short hospital stay or as day-case. This paper aims to evaluate the referral pattern of patients with gallstones, which treatment is given and whether patients admitted as emergency could have benefited from earlier elective referral. The management of these patients is examined in the context of payment by results to determine cost and potential savings. ⋯ A large proportion of patients admitted with symptomatic biliary disease could have been referred earlier and electively. Such referral practice could improve the quality of care and reduce cost for the NHS both in primary and secondary care.
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This paper seeks to develop and test the SERVQUAL model scale for measuring Malaysian private health service quality. ⋯ The study's major contribution is that it offers a way to assess private healthcare service quality. Second, it successfully develops a scale that can be used to measure health service quality in Malaysian contexts.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2010
A comprehensive approach to quality management of intensive care services.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework for improving intensive care unit performance. ⋯ The paper focuses on a uniform model that can be applied to most intensive care units.