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International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access published online on February 21, 2005
International Journal for Quality in Health Care, doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzi018
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International Journal for Quality in Health Care (©) International Society for Quality in Health Care and Oxford University Press 2005; all rights reserved
Accepted December 1, 2004

Article

Setting national priorities for quality assessment of health care services in Korea

Woohyun Cho 1, Sunhee Lee 2, Hye-Young Kang 3*, and Myongkeun Kang 4

1 Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul
2 Ewha Womans Universtiy, College of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul
3 Yonsei University, School of Public Health, Seoul
4 Chosun University, Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Kwangju, Republic of Korea

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Hye-Young Kang, E-mail: hykang{at}yumc.yonsei.ac.kr


  Abstract

Objective. To identify target services and determine national priorities among those services identified for a national quality assessment program of the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) in Korea.

Design. Target services were identified from published sources addressing quality problems, various quality-monitoring programs in other countries, suggestions from 26 medical specialty associations in Korea, and frequently reported consumer claims. Three steps were involved in the prioritization decision: (i) development of a set of priority criteria; (ii) expert panel survey to evaluate the extent to which individual services satisfy each of the priority criteria and to calculate mean priority ratings for individual services; and (iii) formation of four levels of priority groups--top, high-middle, middle, and low--according to the allocated priority ratings.

Results. Five priority criteria were selected: ‘burden of the condition’, ‘seriousness of the quality problem’, ‘interest and demand of society’, ‘acceptability’, and ‘the feasibility of quality assessment’. Among the 57 services identified as targets for the national quality assessment program, 10 were selected as having a top priority for quality assessment because of their high feasibility rating. These are: cardiac surgery; cataract surgery; tonsillectomy; appendectomy; tooth extraction; usage of albumin/globulin products; treatments for hypertension, pneumonia, and acute upper respiratory infection; and services provided by clinical laboratory centers.

Conclusion. The priority services identified from the studies will assist the HIRA in selecting target services and implementing the national assessment program.

Keywords: health care services, priority, quality assessment.
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