Service Quality and Its Evaluation
Health-care solutions, taking the form of structured health-care services for headache, must address the problem of headache as it exists locally and, in that context, should be the best services possible.
The essential words here are "best possible".
There has been no agreement on the meaning of "best" with regard to headache-service quality. Consequently, there is no established methodology for evaluating headache services, or agreed standard against which to evaluate them.
There are two key questions.
1. How is "quality" defined in the context of headache services, and from whose perspective(s):
a) people with headache?
b) health-care providers?
c) payers?
d) the general population?
e) society?
2. In the light of a definition of quality, how, methodologically, should headache services be evaluated?
The Global Campaign, through a process of worldwide consultation, has proposed answers to these questions, developing both a definition of "quality" and a set of quality indicators coupled with methods to apply them. These are being empirically validated in various countries.
Click here to view the pdf file Quality in the provision of headache care. 1: systematic review of the literature and commentary.
Click here to view the pdf file Quality in the provision of headache care. 2: defining quality and its indicators.