Abstract
We reviewed published evidence on quality improvement in hospitals in the Russian Federation since 2000. We used three data sources: MEDLINE, 'Rossiiskaia Meditsina' (Central Scientific Medical Library), and elibrary.ru using specific search terms. No language or study design restrictions were imposed. In total, 1717 articles were identified; 51 met the inclusion criteria and were thematically analysed. Russian legislation, government acts and grey literature were sourced to contextualise identified themes. Since 2010, the Federal Ministry of Health has increasingly sought to improve quality of care, providing additional resources and new initiatives across the health system. These include clinical practice guidelines, pay for performance schemes, electronic medical records, more specialist care, paraclinical care, and quality control systems. Quality of care, increasingly a concern of the Russian government, is said to be improving. Yet most initiatives have rarely been evaluated. This reflects the limited capacity for health services research in Russia. It seems likely that the full potential for improvements in quality of care in Russia is still to be realised.
Highlights
While the Soviet health system had many achievements, it failed to keep pace with developments elsewhere (Field, 1990; Andreev et al, 2003)
We present our findings in relation to developments in the Russian health system that, potentially, might have implications for quality, and for each describe the extent to which this has been evaluated
3.1 Legislation and other policies related to quality of care
Summary
While the Soviet health system had many achievements, it failed to keep pace with developments elsewhere (Field, 1990; Andreev et al, 2003). Progress was limited and, in the mid-2000s, the Russian government launched a large federal programme of investment in health care, with an emphasis on technology (Shishkin and Vlassov, 2009). These changes have been reflected in health outcomes. IP address: 54.85.206.46, on 08 Nov 2021 at 12:39:05, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. The 2016 figure for Sweden was 95.5 and for the USA it was 88.7
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