A study of the criteria used by healthcare professionals, managers and patients to represent and evaluate quality care

Abstract

The criteria used by healthcare stakeholders in this study were not unusual; virtually all were supported by the literature, a proportion of which was evidence-based. The criteria identified in this study are however consensual, agreed upon by healthcare professionals, managers, patients and relatives as representing their view of quality care. These consensual criteria could be used as unifying constructs for the development and testing of more comprehensive, reliable and valid methods of evaluating quality care which represent its multiple dimensions and perspectives.