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Chile
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Reduction in length of stay of discharges from a Chilean Pediatric Unit.
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Improvement Report
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Making a commitment to quality: Development of a national quality assurance program in Chile 1991-1998
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Publications
The Quality Assurance Project /QAP) provided technical assistance to the Chilean Ministry of Health from March 1991 until December 1994. During that time, QAP staff and consultants worked with local health professionals to develop a national quality assurance (QA) program and local QA " expertise. The expressed goals of the program were to 1) raise awareness about the importance of quality throughout the health system; 2) develop am a structure for the support of quality assurance activities; 3) achieve measurable improvements in quality of care and service delivery; and 4) improve patient satisfaction. To a large extent, the quality assurance effort m in Chile was able to achieve these goals. The National Program for the Evaluation and Improvement of Quality (known by its Spanish acronym, am EMC) within the Ministry of Health is now well developed, with QA programs operating in nearly all of Chile's 29 decentralized Health Services. EMC does not depend on external financing or technical assistance. This report summarizes the activities of the first four years of the process of institutionalizing quality assurance in the Chilean public health system, during which time the Quality Assurance Project collaborated with the EMC. (excerpt)
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Institutionalization of quality assurance.
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Publications
The use of quality assurance methods to improve the quality of health care in the developing world has grown substantially over the last ten years. Quality assurance (QA) can be defined as all activities that contribute to defining, designing, assessing, monitoring, and improving the quality of health care, such as developing and communicating standards, measuring the level of compliance with standards, and applying quality management methods to continually improve quality. These activities can be performed as part of the accreditation of facilities, supervision of health workers, or other efforts to improve the performance of health workers and the quality of health services. (excerpt)
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The Chile quality assurance program: Final evaluation
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Publications
This evaluation report provides an overview of the Quality Assurance (QA) Program in the Chilean health care system. It is noted that the program began in the early 1990s, and, working through a QA Unit in the Ministry of Health, developed training modules, standards, and communication strategies to support the QA effort. Divided into eight sections, the first section provides an introduction to the final evaluation of the Chile Quality Assurance Program. Section 2 traces the origins of the program, while section 3 presents an overview of the Chilean QA administrative structures. Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 detail the processes whereby the QA effort became self-sufficient, the involvement of universities in the QA effort, and the methodologies for standard setting and quality improvement. Finally, section 8 presents recommendations relating to management and leadership, technical functions, and program management.
