Quality assessment in medical rehabilitation

The advances of modern medicine, prolonging the average life-span, and especially the recognition of medical rehabilitation as a vital part of the medical process, have created rapid development in the field among most of the countries worldwide. The dynamic process of the development in the fields of medical rehabilitation in Russian healthcare, has brought up questions about different outlooks, principles and processes of quality assessment in medical rehabilitation. Taking into consideration the differences in the organizational structures and professional tendencies applying the indicators of quality into rehabilitation practice can prove to be challenging. In the last years the Israeli health system has gained much experience working with different rehabilitation structures. The Obligatory State Insurance of the Israeli health system forced Health Funds to developed optimal indicators for the evaluation of the professional quality in rehabilitation. The accumulated knowledge can help in creating a system for the quality assessment in Russian Federation. Rehabilitation is characterized by a long list of professional performance aspects which are exposed to quality control. That is why it is common to define indicators separately for the structures, processes, and results. In different countries dissimilar aspect of quality are defined as indicators, but all of them are built on similar principles which focus on the simplicity and objectiveness of information gathering, minimal dependency on the character of the auditor, combining different forms of internal and external examination, and including systems of quality control by gathering questionnaires from the patients and their family members. The chosen quality indicators of the rehabilitation process need to reflect on the different sides of the professional treatment, stimulating a constant increase in quality on account of organizational activities in the industry in general and in separate departments in particular. The International Classification of Functioning (ICF) is widespread over many countries and constitutes the accepted paradigm in the field of medical rehabilitation, and with time may become the optimal platform for developing a system of quality control worldwide.