Assessment of the quality of medical care provided to patients in psychiatric hospitals

Abstract

Monitoring and evaluation of the quality of medical care provided to patients is essential in any medical specialty, but especially in relation to specialized care in mental health hospitals. The aim of our work is to assess the quality of specialized medical care provided to patients in the psychiatric hospital. We have examined 270 medical records and internal quality control cards of patients hospitalized from 2015 to 2019 in the Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 4 of the Moscow Healthcare Department (hereinafter referred to as “PCH No. 4” of MHD). The quality control of the provided medical care was carried out twice with the assessment of each studied section in the range from 0 to 1 point. Thus, it was possible to calculate the overall medical care quality coefficient with a description of the defects found in the provision of medical services. After the first control, quality coefficient appeared to be 0.86 (0.79; 0.91), and after the second one 0.95 (0.92; 0.96). During the second control, which was conducted in 2019, the medical care quality was significantly higher (p = 0.011) compared to the results of 2015–2018. The total share of detected defects in the medical-diagnostic process in a psychiatric hospital was 40.7 % (and was captured in 110 out of 270 cases). The results of our study demonstrate the necessity of medical care internal quality monitoring in a psychiatric hospital, since it contributes not only to the improvement of overall quality of medical treatment, but also to timely detection and reduction of the number of defects in the medical-diagnostic process.