International quality management systems – impact to the Croatian healthcare system

Abstract:

For many years, quality in healthcare has been the subject of growing discussion and research on a global level. However, the impact of applying international quality management systems remains a challenge, due to the disputable conclusions of published research. Therefore a research on the impact of internationally recognized quality management systems was conducted in the Republic of Croatia. The research was performed on Croatian hospitals based on the expenditures, as well on the data acquired by the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire 2006 Short Form (SAQ), which was applied for the first time in the Republic of Croatia. The research results suggest that the implementation of internationally recognized quality management systems is an investment and not an expense, that there is a need to improve the communication during the implementation of quality management systems at healthcare institutions, as well as the possible need to review the system of education of health care managers. The results also indicate the necessity of multidimensional argumentation regarding the merging of small hospitals. The research also represents a scientifically proven starting point to evaluate the impact of a national healthcare quality system.

Key words:
healthcare; healthcare costs; impact of quality management systems; Republic of Croatia; SAQ 2006.