OECD Reviews of Health Care Quality: Czech Republic 2014: Raising Standards

This book presents a review of health care quality in the Czech Republic. It finds that over the past 20 years, the Czech Republic witnessed the unprecedented gains in quality of health care and life expectancy and successfully transferred its Semaschko system into the modern accessible health care system with private-public mix of providers. Nevertheless the health care system in the Czech Republic still has some way to go to achieve the outcomes of the best performing OECD members. While some of the gap might be caused by the one of the lowest levels of health care expenditures among OECD countries (7.2% GDP in 2011) there are possibilities to improve the outcomes without incurring much of the additional costs.

The Czech authorities should reach a consensus on the development of quality of care and data infrastructure and aim for sustainable long-term initiatives undisturbed by the political cycles in both of these areas. While the adverse events reporting and voluntary accreditation are the good steps towards the accountability of the providers, the government should do more in this area, undertake the effort to broaden the accreditation process and include outpatient care and link public health authorities to the quality agenda of inpatient care. In the area of data infrastructure more data should be gathered, the process of data gathering should be streamlined and administrative burden for the providers lowered primarily via the merging the data-collecting agencies. Finally, without the active participation of health insurance funds and proper reimbursement mechanisms in place the quality agenda will not be perceived as the priority.

Contents:

+ Acronyms and abbreviations

+ Executive summary

+ Assessment and recommendations
-Building a quality architecture to support continuously improving care
-Strengthening the data infrastructure
-Better quality in screening and preventive health care
-Improving care for patients with diabetes and metabolic syndrome

+ Chapter 1. Quality of care policies in the Czech Republic
-1.1. Introduction
-1.2. Design, costs and outcomes in the Czech health care system
-1.3. Governance for quality of health care in the Czech Republic
-1.4. Assuring the quality of inputs to the Czech health care system
-1.5. Patient safety policies
-1.6. Health system standards and guidelines
-1.7. Managing health system improvement
-1.8. Strengthening the role and perspective of the patient
-1.9. Conclusion
-Bibliography

+ Chapter 2. Health data infrastructure in the Czech Republic
-2.1. Introduction
-2.2. Overview of data collection
-2.3. Assessment of the data infrastructure
-2.4. Recommendations to improve the Czech data infrastructure
-2.5. Conclusion
-Bibliography
-Annex 2.A1. Health care data in the Czech Republic

+ Chapter 3. Screening and prevention programmes in the Czech Republic
-3.1. Introduction
-3.2. Configuration of screening and prevention programmes in the Czech Republic
-3.3. Current outcomes associated with screening and prevention programmes in the Czech Republic
-3.4. Governance challenges faced by screening and prevention programmes in the Czech Republic
-3.5. Securing a greater quality dividend from screening and prevention programmes in the Czech Republic
-3.6. Conclusion
-Bibliography

+ Chapter 4. Diabetes care in the Czech Republic
-4.1. Introduction
-4.2. The prevalence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome are a cause for concern
-4.3. Scaling-up primary and secondary prevention for diabetes
-4.4. Despite some improvement, there are still shortcomings in the outcomes of diabetes
-4.5. The Czech Republic should step up efforts to provide good quality care for diabetes, and to manage complications
-4.6. Conclusion
-Bibliography

Website: OECD iLibrary http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/

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