The current policy of expanding healthcare coverage seeks to provide quality healthcare to all at an affordable price. Taking stock of these efforts on a regular basis is critically important to ensure sustainability of the National Health Insurance.
Assessing quality and performance, and sharing the results with the public, will help build the institutional and operational infrastructure required to change our current healthcare system to a value-based system. The shift to a value-based healthcare system is built on the premise that quality of care will be constantly monitored and shared.
The goal of the Korean Healthcare Quality Report is to measure the quality of our healthcare system and establish a mechanism for continuous improvement. Assessing the quality of our healthcare system at a national level, and continuously monitoring and sharing with the public its progress, will serve as a catalyst for improvement in all areas of national affairs.
This study is about developing a national healthcare quality report which gauges progress made in the performance of the health care delivery system. This study is the second study tracking the quality performance of Korea healthcare system based on framework laid in the first-year-work (2015 Korea Healthcare Quality Report: Achievements and Challenges of Korea Health Care System).
This report is composed of four chapters. The first chapter examines the background, purpose, and conceptual framework of this report, and the methodology of measuring the quality of care in each category. The sec-ond chapter synthesizes quality performance in the 8 dimensions and suggests challenges to improve in each dimensions. Also this chapter discusses the international comparison with quality indicators are selected this report. In the third chapter we compare the quality of health care system in each region using a representative quality indicator, amenable mortality rate, and meter score suggested by AHRQ. The last chapter measures quality improvements made in health care since 2005 in terms of 233 indicators in 8 dimensions(effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, patient centeredness, care coordination, efficiency, access to health care, system infrastructure).
Korean Healthcare Quality Report(KHQR) developed by this study will serve as a barometer for every stakeholder participating in our health care system by which to make year to year comparison of how the health care delivery system is doing to improve quality of care overall the nation.