Workshop on “Healthcare quality management and clinical audit, as main components of healthcare reforming strategy” held

The EU Project “Support to secondary healthcare reform in Ukraine” together with the Ministry of Healthcare held the workshop “Healthcare quality management and clinical audit, as main components of healthcare reforming strategy” on 28 - 29 September 2009 at Kyiv municipal House of Teachers by the following address: Kyiv, Volodymyrska str. 57.

The workshop was aimed at emphasizing the most acute problems in development and implementation of a quality management system for primary and secondary care, drafting clinical regulations and medical standards within a healthcare system, clinical audit, and implementation of technology assessment in healthcare.
Issues of quality healthcare services for population and implementation of quality management and control tools always were and still are of high importance, especially during financial and economic crisis. Necessity in global reforming of the whole healthcare system is obvious and highly anticipated in Ukraine. That is why, the EU Project invited international experts, healthcare quality management and control specialists for the workshop:
Michael Bews – ex-director of Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN/NHS Scotland);
Dr. Sarah Twaddle – director of Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN/NHS Scotland)
Olena Novichkova – family medicine chair at I.M. Sechenov Moscow medical academy, director of evidence-based medicine center, Russian Federation;
Dr. Greta Ross – Royal College of general practitioners, United Kingdom.

The following issues were discussed during the workshop: drafting and implementation of clinical regulations and medical standards in Ukrainian healthcare; development and implementation of a healthcare management system for primary and secondary care; healthcare quality management within professional activities; regulation of ethical and professional behavior of doctors in the United Kingdom.

The idea of an open workshop was proposed to the EU Project by MoH administration. However, the most important factor was will of European experts to share their experience in QMS operation and inform of recent trends in healthcare services provision, implementation of management tools for a healthcare quality system.

 International practice of healthcare standardization, principles, criteria and stages of clinical regulation development, evidence-based algorithms of medical standards’ drafting process provoked significant interest. Issues of clinical audit and system of medical technology assessment were accepted with great eagerness as well. Although the aforementioned procedures were not reflected within the system of healthcare quality management to the fullest extent, there’s still hope that those processes will eventually become an integrate part of the system. There exists a necessity in single comprehension of existing terms and definitions, which is the basis for correct and adequate operation of a healthcare quality management system in Ukraine. The participants reached consensus on necessity in approving a unique glossary for terms and definitions, in order to raise specialists’ awareness of a healthcare quality management system.