Quality of care in Israel and beyond

This thematic series in Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (IJHPR) considers quality of care not just in Israel but internationally. Health care systems around the world are intensively engaged in efforts to monitor and improve the quality of care. Empirical studies and scholarly publication have played a central role in these efforts. Israel has been an active participant in these world-wide efforts. Its system for monitoring the quality of care in community-based services covers all of Israel's citizens and is among the most advanced in the world. That effort is supported by the sophisticated information systems of Israel's health plans, which also provide a fertile ground for additional types of quality monitoring and evaluation.

In the hospital arena, until recently, Israel's quality monitoring effort was less well-developed. However, five years ago the Ministry of Health initiated hospital monitoring efforts as well. Since then, rapid progress has been made, with almost all Israeli hospitals participating in international accreditation processes, and nation-wide systems being put into place to monitor clinical quality. In both hospital and community settings, there is an ongoing exchange of ideas between Israel and other countries. In both settings, the issue of sharing information on quality with the general public is increasingly coming to the fore, and here too, Israel is simultaneously learning from the international experience and contributing to it.

Israeli studies of quality of care have been, and continue to be, published in such established journals as the BMJ, Health Services Research, Health Affairs, and the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. At the same time, IJHPR is emerging as an important vehicle for exploring the policy implications of Israeli efforts to improve quality and for facilitating cross-national learning in this area.

This article collection brings together, in a convenient setting, the IJHPR articles published to date on quality of care, broadly defined. We look forward to seeing this collection grow over the coming years.

Page 2 of 2

Content Type:Original Research Article
The association between continuity of care in the community and health outcomes: a population-based study
The study goal was to assess indices of continuity of care in the primary care setting and their association with health outcomes and healthcare services utilization, given the reported importance of continuit...
Authors:Jacob Dreiher, Doron S Comaneshter, Yael Rosenbluth, Erez Battat, Haim Bitterman and Arnon D Cohen
Citation:Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012 1:21
Published on: 23 May 2012
- ViewFull Text
- ViewPDF
Content Type:Integrative Article
Creating patient safety capacity in a nation's health system: A comparison between Israel and Canada
Injuries to patients by the healthcare system (i.e., adverse events) are common and their impact on individuals and systems is considerable. Over the last decade, extensive efforts have been made worldwide to ...
Authors:Roy Ilan and Yoel Donchin
Citation:Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012 1:19
Published on: 23 May 2012
- ViewFull Text
- ViewPDF
Content Type:Commentary
Continuity of care: important, but only the first step
Continuity of care is critical to achieving the best outcomes, especially for patients with chronic conditions. Israel’s strong commitment to primary care as a central organizing concept of the health system, ...
Authors:Janet M Corrigan
Citation:Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012 1:22
Published on: 23 May 2012
- ViewFull Text
- ViewPDF
Content Type:Original Research Article
Community healthcare in Israel: quality indicators 2007-2009
The National Program for Quality Indicators in Community Healthcare in Israel (QICH) was developed to provide policy makers and consumers with information on the quality of community healthcare in Israel. In w...
Authors:Dena H Jaffe, Amir Shmueli, Arie Ben-Yehuda, Ora Paltiel, Ronit Calderon, Arnon D Cohen, Eran Matz, Joseph K Rosenblum, Rachel Wilf-Miron and Orly Manor
Citation:Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012 1:3
Published on: 30 January 2012
- ViewFull Text
- ViewPDF
Content Type:Commentary
Quality of care: how good is good enough?
Israel has made impressive progress in improving performance on key measures of the quality of health care in the community in recent years. These achievements are all the more notable given Israel's modest ov...
Authors:Mark R Chassin
Citation:Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012 1:4
Published on: 30 January 2012
- ViewFull Text
- ViewPDF