The Fourth Dimension
Are you interested in understanding more on why quality of care and patient safety are important? “The Fourth Dimension” is a new WHO/Europe podcast produced by the WHO Centre of Excellence for Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Athens, Greece, discussing topics related to the subject. Every month, host Thanos Myloneros interviews a different guest with the aim to engage listeners in different aspects of quality of care and patient safety. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to stay informed and make a difference in health.
The Fourth Dimension
Transforming health systems towards improving Quality of Care
The second episode of The Fourth Dimension looks into aspects of quality of care at the level of health systems and health sector. This episode’s guest Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Polices and Systems at WHO Regional Office for Europe, sheds some light on how quality of care and patient safety can be found and improved across the whole spectrum of health care services - from hospital care to primary care and from rehabilitation services to nursing homes.
In that sense, outside the processed in health care settings there are many factors that might affect quality of care, upstream at the health system level, like financing, health workforce and externalities that press health systems, such as economic crises and wars. Like also the recent pandemic, when inequalities in quality of care both among and within health systems were exacerbated in the European Region. Within that framework, Dr Azzopardi-Muscat discusses all these complications and how WHO Europe supports Member States in transforming their health systems towards improving their quality of care and ensuring patient safety.