Quality and accreditation in health care services

Introduction: The quality of health care services is one of the most frequently mentioned terms and concepts regarding principles of health policy and it is currently high on the agenda of National, European and International policy makers.

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive review is to investigate the correlation between quality in health services and the promotion of health care quality provided by health services.

Methodology: The study material consisted of recent articles on the subject mainly found in the Medline electronic database and the Hellenic Academic Libraries Association (HEAL-Link).

Results: The clinical quality of services is often difficult to be assessed by "clients" even after the service has been provided. This is due to the fact that customers experience illness, pain, uncertainty, fear and perceived lack of control. Thus, clients may be reluctant to "co-produce" because healthcare is a service they need while they may not want it and because the risk to harm their health is prominent. In the field of healthcare management, patients' perception refers to perceived quality, as opposed to the actual or absolute quality that requires critical management. This is why health care managers face constant pressure to provide qualitative health services.

Conclusions: Continuous monitoring of health care services for quality assessment is essential, hence, the evaluation of patients' perceptions of quality of healthcare, has received considerable attention in recent years.