QUALITY OF MEDICAL SERVICES: ECONOMIC ESSENCE AND INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to study the economic essence of the concept of medical service and to highlight the key areas of influence on the formation of a high-quality level of medical service. The paper identifies 8 key factors that have a direct impact on the formation of services in the field of medical care. Our own interpretation of the concept of medical service was presented. The authors believe that it is reasonable to consider a medical service as a component of medical care, which provides a complex of measures, directed to strengthening, maintenance and restoration of physical and mental health of the patient, including in accordance with his expectations and which can be provided through both public non-profit institutions of health care system, and the institutions of commercial character on a paid and free basis.The interpretation of the quality of a medical service in the narrow and broad sense was distinguished. In the narrow sense, the quality of a medical service can be evaluated by the patient based on their level of satisfaction with the service received. However, in a broad sense, all health care market participants should be taken into account when establishing the level of quality of the health care service provided. Because all of them in their direct tasks influence the innovative, material, technical and intellectual formation of the medical service.The paper substantiates the interrelation between the level of medical service quality and the costs of health care institutions. The components of the health care market have been considered and it has been established that despite the formation of the medical service directly on the market of medical services, a significant influence on its quality has also the health care market, which not only forms the basis for the provision of the medical service, but also regulates the possible standards of implementation. Each of the participants of the health care market should be responsible for the inconsistency of the quality of medical services set through the patient and to correct the identified deviations from the "reference service" within their authority through the tools available to them, including through the mechanisms of institutional regulation.