The Quality Development Plan guides the procedures in the provision of healthcare. The plan is intended to guide healthcare providers in meeting their requirements. It reveals how healthcare institutions can constantly monitor the quality and safety of their services and make improvements when necessary.
The objective of the Quality Development Plan is for healthcare users to receive services that:
Increases the likelihood of better health and quality of life
Is coherent and compatible.
Is safe, timely, efficient, non-discriminatory, user-centered, and successful.
The Quality Development Plan aims to strengthen the health service's quality and safety and promote its development. The Directorate of Health publishes the plan, which the Minister confirms. The Plan for Quality Development is taken into account in healthcare assessments.
The Plan for Quality Development is based on the following:
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Healthcare providers work on improvements in a systematic way, cf. Deming's Cycle. The quality cycle aims toward continuous improvement. The cycle is based on the following four elements:
Plan: Identify opportunities, set goals, and plan for change.
Do: Execute the plan, and implement changes.
Check: Review what was done, and analyze the results (goals achieved or not).
Act: Take action to standardize or improve the process, find solutions, and learn from mistakes.
The structure is in accordance with the size, scope, and risk associated with the healthcare provided and meets the requirements stated in the plan. The responsibilities and roles of staff are defined. Procedures and work descriptions are recorded and are known and accessible to everyone.
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Healthcare providers monitor the quality of their activities by recording and publishing quality indicators. Quality indicators include:
National quality indicators; quality indicators that are determined for the entire country by the Directorate of Health and allow for comparisons between similar healthcare institutions or healthcare services.
Quality indicators by choice; healthcare providers choose quality indicators that describe the quality of the service from the perspective of users, healthcare professionals, and managers.
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The Medical Director of Health and Public Health Act states that "Healthcare facilities, self-employed healthcare practitioners, and others who provide health services shall maintain a register of unforeseen incidents, for the purpose of finding explanations for them and seeking ways of ensuring that they do not recur." The incident registration system Datix will be used in Iceland to record and process incidents to further improve the service and make it safer.
An incident recording system contains all the processing tools necessary. The system monitors the extent, frequency, and processing of incidents that occur at the relevant institution.
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The experience of healthcare users is a valuable source of information that is useful in the improvement process.
The Directorate of Health considers it important that healthcare providers regularly collect information from healthcare users on their experience of the services provided, for example through service surveys. The Office also encourages users to take an active part in their treatment, as research shows that those who do so do better.
Regular service surveys are conducted among the healthcare users and the results are taken into account when improving the service.
Quality outcome
Healthcare facilities and premises of healthcare practitioners submit an annual quality outcome to the Directorate of Health and the Icelandic Health Insurance, as applicable, based on the above-mentioned key factors. Its goal is to show results in terms of quality and safety of the service. Where appropriate, self-employed healthcare practitioners who run clinics together can send a joint annual quality outcome.
