A round table for healthcare policy makers and managers of the CIS member states was held at Russian Research Institute of Health

On February 9, a meeting the CIS Network of Institutes for Public Health and Healthcare Digital Transformation was held at Russian Research Institute of Health (RIH), dedicated to modern working approaches to patients’ satisfaction with medical care. Within the frames of the event, CIS healthcare experts presented their best practices, as well as research and surveys to determine patients’ satisfaction, discussed patient-oriented issues, provision of medical care considering citizens’ expectations, ensuring an individual approach in addressing patients’ problems.

The meeting was opened by Kasymbekov Zhartynbek Orozbekovich, Chairman of the CIS Institutes Network, Head of the National Institute of Public Health under the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic. The meeting was moderated by Nuriya Zagitovna Musina, Head of the Network Secretariat, Head of RIH International Affairs Department.

Olga Sergeyevna Kobyakova, RIH Director, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech: "Today more and more people are talking about and paying attention to patient-centered care, and in particular, in the Russian Federation - this is what the President constantly tells us and notes that healthcare system performance will be assessed primarily by the level of patients’ satisfaction with medical care. Last year, the Ministry of Health issued an order approving the methodology for assessing the population's satisfaction with the quality and availability of health care. This methodology is unified on the whole territory of our country, it is specified and transparent. Our Institute is currently collecting analytical data from the whole territory of the country following this methodology. The satisfaction indicator is now included in the performance indicator of the Federal Project for primary health care upgrading. Therefore, everything that relates to population satisfaction with medical care and patient-centered care is in the focus of our attention, and we are happy to listen, study and replicate the experience of other countries".

The first speaker was Zhipara Azizbekovna Azizbekova, Ph.D., Head of Department for Implementation of Health Insurance Programs of the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Zhipara Azizbekovna presented the report "Assessment of Service Quality - Patient Satisfaction", in which she shared the historical experience of patient satisfaction assessment in Kyrgyzstan, from paper questionnaires and telephone surveys to introduction of digital data collection tools and the latest practices currently used.

Then Nabil Seyidov, Head of Department, Center of Public Health and Reforms, Ministry of Health, Republic of Azerbaijan, spoke. In his presentation "Patient Safety, Health Services Satisfaction and Health Services Quality" Nabil told about importance of patients’ satisfaction not only as an indicator of organization’s commercial success, but also as an indicator of country healthcare system effectiveness. He also mentioned the need to create a culture of safety, eliminate errors and negligence of doctors and staff to this end, and deeply integrate primary and hospital sectors of healthcare system. "Assessing the safety culture is the first step in developing safety" emphasized Nabil Seyyidov.

Dmitry Yuryevich Ruzanov, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center of Medical Technologies, Informatization, Management and Economics of Healthcare of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, made a presentation "Patients’ Satisfaction with the Quality of Medical Care: The Republic of Belarus Experience".

Dmitry Yurievich presented the basic factors influencing satisfaction with medical care:

• thoroughness of the physical examination
• time spent with the patient
• careful listening to patient’s concerns
• using understandable words and terms
• explaining the patient's medical condition
• involving the patient in diagnostic and treatment decisions
• staff courtesy and care
• perception of medical care organization (queuing, convenience of waiting)

"If we want to influence patients’ satisfaction with medical care, we must first of all influence the level and expertise of communication. If we do not teach the doctor to communicate with the patient correctly, it will be difficult to influence satisfaction", - said Dmitry Yurievich.

Kostyuk Alexander Vladimirovich, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of RSE on PCV "National Scientific Center for Health Development named after Salidat Kairbekova". of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, presented the report "Key aspects of patient-centered healthcare model of the Republic of Kazakhstan".

Alexander Vladimirovich told about modern trends in health care in Kazakhstan. Among them he emphasized the increasing population demand for medical services, modern technologies integration and use of tools for medical services management (clinical protocols, algorithms, principles of evidence-based medicine), digital transformation of the industry, innovative technologies development in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. He also reported that Kazakhstan is gradually transitioning to general medical practice (so-called family medicine). This approach increases the credit of trust in patient and relatives in relation to the attending physician.

This was followed by a presentation by Murodali Mekhmondostovich Ruziev, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Director of the State Institution "Tajik Research Institute of Preventive Medicine", Ministry of Health and Population Social Protection, Republic of Tajikistan. He presented a study on successful population perception of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination. In his presentation, Murodali Mehmondostovich described the barriers encountered in vaccination campaign: insufficient medical literacy among doctors and medical staff, insufficient understanding the differences between vaccine varieties and the expected effect of their use, insufficient awareness of healthcare workers, and, as a consequence, their inability to conduct adequate outreach to the population.

Ivan Anatolievich Deev, RIH Deputy Director for Healthcare Digital Transformation, presented the Russian Federation experience and made a report "Satisfaction with medical care: evaluation methodology, influence factors, approaches to change the level". He noted the need to determine the patients’ satisfaction indicator with medical care, as satisfaction assessment includes "internal" aspects that are often overlooked by management or physicians.

There are several domains of satisfaction: appointment availability, waiting time, comfort, staff attitude, and explanation of treatment. "If we want to change the situation, then the development of negative leveling measures should proceed depending on which segment we are currently analyzing or which domain of this entity we are considering", - Ivan Anatolievich noted. Also, during his speech, he proposed to develop a unified educational program within the framework of Institutes Network, combining participating states’ approaches, methodologies and best practices.