As noted by the Health Council of Canada in 2013, there
are many definitions of quality in healthcare, but a
common conception of it is “the degree to which health
services for individuals and populations increase the
likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent
with current professional kn...
The provincial Chronic Disease Prevention and
Management Strategy from 2008-12 (and then renewed
until 2016) began with a focus on diabetes.(1) The
strategy had a stated intention to expand beyond
diabetes to a broader chronic-disease management
approach. However, to determine whether it would be
benefic...
We identified two overviews of systematic reviews, 18
systematic reviews and 17 primary studies from our
searches that were relevant to the questions posed. The
primary studies address the first question about risk
factors for unsafe clinical practice, and both of the
overviews and all of the systematic ...
There is an increasing focus on improving healthcare in order to ensure higher quality. Training programmes have been developed to teach health professionals and students formal quality improvement methods. This evidence scan explores the following questions: What types of training about formal quality i...
This issue brief mobilizes both global and local
research evidence about a problem, three options
for addressing the problem, and key
implementation considerations. Whenever
possible, the issue brief summarizes research
evidence drawn from systematic reviews of the
research literature and occasionally fr...
The concept of screening in health care – that is, actively seeking to identify
a disease or pre-disease condition in individuals who are presumed and
presume themselves to be healthy – grew rapidly during the twentieth
century and is now widely accepted in most of the developed world. Used
wisely, i...
This policy brief provides a review of current information and issues relating to cross-border health care in Europe. Following an overview of current patterns of patient mobility, the policy brief looks in turn at the legal framework for mobility, the financial implications, approaches to quality monito...
In this policy brief, we will take a fresh look
at the hospital, and examine the questions
that policy-makers need to be asking about
its role in the health care system.
Although most health care takes places
outside hospitals, for most people, they have
come to symbolize the health care system.
The capa...
Hospitals are a key component of the health
care system and are central to the process of
health system reform, but as institutions they
have received remarkably little attention from
policy-makers and researchers. They have
long been regarded as “a black box”’ whose
workings are impenetrable. But ...
There has been a dramatic upsurge of
entrepreneurialism in health care systems in
Europe, spurred by interests in better
efficiency and quality. The characteristics of
entrepreneurial behaviour include seeking
opportunity, promoting innovation, and
genuine accountability. However, experience
so far indic...
