| Context: In many healthcare systems, the quality of the healthcare delivered is monitored using a number of “indicators.” In the present review, we investigate studies that address issues with the care delivered by healthcare providers. To do this, we employ indicators of the quality of those healthcare services.
Evidence Acquisition: The studies for the review were identified by searching a number of electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid(Medline), the Social Sciences Citation Index, SID(Scientific Information Database, or Persian database),and Iran Medex (Persian database). Of 8,850studiespublishedbetweenJanuary1971 and May2015, 53 met the study criteria and were reviewed. In this study, the following keywords were searched, both alone and in combination: health, healthcare, health care, provider*, effectiveness, quality, clinical outcome, patient satisfaction, and quality of life. We also considered healthcare quality indicators such as “clinical outcome,” “patient satisfaction,” and “quality of life” for our assessment of the quality of health care providers.
Results: Of the 53 papers, 18 assessed the quality of care provided for cardiovascular disorders, 12 studied cancer conditions, 8 dealt with metabolic disorders and diabetes, 6 focused on acute, 3 assessed orthopedics and trauma conditions, 2 studied pediatrics conditions, 2 assessed obstetrics and gynecology conditions, 1 dealt with asthma and allergic disease conditions, and 1 assessed geriatrics conditions. To assess improvement of healthcare providers’ performance based on healthcare quality indicators, the improvement in clinical outcome ranged from 26.6% in cancer condition to 98.8% in pediatrics and gynecology conditions, the acceptable patients’ satisfaction was achieved in the range of 30.2% in cancer conditions to 96.0% in pediatrics conditions, and the improvement in quality of life ranged from 12.5% in cancer conditions to 88.7% in acute infection. Conclusions: Taking account of three indicators of clinical outcome, patients’ satisfaction, and quality of life for assessing quality of healthcare providers, the highest effects of providers were observed in pediatrics and gynecologist conditions and the lowest effects were found in cancer conditions. |