Establishing the Criteria for the Quality of Elderly Medical Care From the Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

In 1993, Taiwan has transformed into an aged society. Compared with general patients, older patients differ considerably in body functionality, mentally, and mobility-wise. The primary customers of medical institutions are adult patients in Taiwan, and the needs of older patients are often ignored; however, older patients visiting the case hospital in this study accounted for nearly 30% of the total number of outpatients. This indicates that the needs of older patients are a matter requiring the serious attention of medical personnel. This is a common issue for all countries that were entered an aging structure of the population. This study investigated the attention paid by supervisors and medical personnel involved with medical decisions to the quality of medical services received by older outpatients. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was employed to interview 10 experts in older medical care providing age-friendly medical care at the case hospital, medical staff including senior physicians, nursing department supervisors, administration department supervisors, and certified managers. The results indicate that the supervisors and medical personnel considered the “communication and services” provided to older patients during their medical treatments to be the most crucial factor in their treatment process, rating it twice as important as the next most important criteria, the care process and physical environment. Medical personnel paid great attention to communicate with and servicing older patients; listening to their needs and concerns was deemed the most critical, followed by being able to empathize with them to solve problems. Asking patients about their problems when they visited the hospital was considered the most crucial aspect of the care process; in the physical environment, it was spatial planning and traffic flow design. The results of this study enable other countries' medical institution managers and relevant competent authorities to gain insight into the attention paid by front-line employees in promoting age-friendly medical care. If supervisors and medical personnel involved with medical decisions share a similar attitude toward promoting medical service quality, government authorities and medical institutions can implement and enhance an age-friendly medical treatment environment for older patients, as well as increase quality of patient-centered medical services.