Quality of care in Israel and beyond
Collection published: 9 January 2013
Last updated: 23 January 2013
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, the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (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 new 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.
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Interventions for reducing readmissions – are we barking up the right tree?
Ran D Balicer, Efrat Shadmi, Avi Israeli Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2013, 2:2 (23 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Israel provides an auspicious setting for developing integrative mechanisms to reduce inappropriate re-admissions that could have global applicability. |
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The effect of clinical interventions on hospital readmissions: a meta-review of published meta-analyses
Jochanan Benbassat, Mark I Taragin Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2013, 2:1 (23 January 2013)
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| PubMed | Cited on BioMed Central
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Editor’s summary
The effectiveness of clinical interventions to reduce hospital readmissions depends on several key factors, including: the setting (hospital v. community), the nature of the intervention, and the patients' underlying health problem. |
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Improving health outcomes: innovation, coverage, quality and adherence
Martin McKee, Clara K Chow Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:43 (25 October 2012)
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| PubMed | Cited on BioMed Central
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Editor’s summary
The Israeli health system has made considerable progress in reducing deaths amenable to medical care but has more to do. One major focus should be promoting greater patient adherence to treatment.
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Mortality rates in Israel from causes amenable to health care, regional and international comparison
Nehama Goldberger, Ziona Haklai Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:41 (25 October 2012)
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Editor’s summary
In comparison with 20 European countries, Israel's 2008 amenable mortality rate ranked 8th lowest for males and 12th lowest for females. Genitourinary diseases were a larger component in Israel than other countries and circulatory diseases were a relatively smaller component in Israel.
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Physicians’ views of performance reports: grading the graders
Bruce E Landon Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:27 (20 June 2012)
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Editor’s summary
Quality measurement and feedback programs have become widespread and are looked upon as a cornerstone of quality improvement efforts. Information on physicians' views of these programs can be extremely useful for improving the acceptability and impact of such programs.
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Monitoring quality in Israeli primary care: The primary care physicians' perspective
Rachel Nissanholtz-Gannot, Bruce Rosen, and The Quality Monitoring Study Group Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:26 (20 June 2012)
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| PubMed | Cited on BioMed Central
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Editor’s summary
Overall, Israeli primary care physicians strongly support the country's pioneering quality monitoring program and they appreciate its contribution to quality of care. However, they are concerned about the resultant increased workload, excess managerial pressure, over- competition, and the validity of some of the quality indicators.
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Continuity of care: important, but only the first step
Janet M Corrigan Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:22 (23 May 2012)
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Editor’s summary
The President of the National Quality Forum notes that Israel's impressive levels of continuity of care is due in part to it strong commitment to primary care as a central organizing concept of the health system, accompanied by major investments in health information technology.
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The association between continuity of care in the community and health outcomes: a population-based study
Jacob Dreiher, Doron S Comaneshter, Yael Rosenbluth, Erez Battat, Haim Bitterman, Arnon D Cohen Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:21 (23 May 2012)
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Editor’s summary
The article makes use of Clalit's extensive database to compute four different continuity measures and explore their relationship with a wide range of quality and utilization measures. The results are both important and somewhat surprising.
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National patient safety initiatives: Moving beyond what is necessary
Eyal Zimlichman, David W Bates Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:20 (23 May 2012)
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Editor’s summary
Two patient safety experts from Harvard Medical School contend that, because of its already substantial commitment to health information technology, Israel has a major opportunity to move forward rapidly and achieve broad impact on the safety front.
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Creating patient safety capacity in a nation's health system: A comparison between Israel and Canada
Roy Ilan, Yoel Donchin Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:19 (23 May 2012)
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Editor’s summary
Whereas some patient safety capacity and expertise already exist in Israel, there is a considerable gap that needs to be filled; possible immediate next steps are suggested.
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Quality of care: how good is good enough?
Mark R Chassin Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:4 (30 January 2012)
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Community healthcare in Israel: quality indicators 2007-2009
Dena H Jaffe, Amir Shmueli, Arie Ben-Yehuda, Ora Paltiel, Ronit Calderon, Arnon D Cohen, Eran Matz, Joseph K Rosenblum, Rachel Wilf-Miron, Orly Manor Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 2012, 1:3 (30 January 2012)
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