The Quality Of The Health System In Colombia

The quality of the health system in Colombia

It is known as the quality of health care to the ability to provide collectively and individually, a variety of services to a population so that it can easily access optimal and equitable care. This includes, the provision of the service effectively, security for the patient, that it has a good care experience, that the care is timely and with the minimum number of errors. As well as refers to the continuous process of searching for the improvement of the system by elaborating health and corrective methods seeking to reach excellence as close as possible.

When we talk about quality health care, there is no reference to favoritism -based care that has greater privileges, luxuries or that requires greater complexity, but this must be decent attention, and that is able to satisfy timely and Effectively the needs and particularities of users at any level of care.

Avedis Donabedian, was the one that made it possible for health systems to begin to be investigated and was the one who transformed the thought about these, in which emphasis is placed on the evaluation of the competencies of health personnel, of the structure, of the structure, of the structure, The processes and results of health actions to measure the quality of the system, in this way, thanks to it we know that the response that must be provided to a health problem does not constitute a group of unrelated actions with each other, but a complex process that integrates improvement in all its aspects.

We know that the Colombian health system has a great guarantee of coverage of 91.55% and universal access which represents an advantage or strength with which other countries do not count, but this does not imply that this is how it is possible to offer a good service, since the fact that the vast majority of Colombia residents can access and make use of the services offered, if these are not effectively, timely, safe and pleasant .

According to the National Health Care Report of 2015, a certain level of quality in health services is required so that an improvement in people’s health status is notable. For example, it establishes that the coverage in interventions for the maternal-child population has increased, resulting in the decrease in deaths in this group, so that actions aimed at preventing risks in due course and promoting measures such as vaccination and Breastfeeding are a sign of an improvement in the quality of attention to this population group.

However, inequality and deficiency in the provision of services is preserved even when health indicators improve and that is why, although infant mortality has reached the lowest value in the last ten years, 62% of these Deaths are neonatal, which indicates that there is still enough to work to achieve a real impact through the promotion of sexual and reproductive health, as well as the decrease in risk behaviors by implementing measures at an individual and collective level, improvement in the Early collection of pregnant women and the carrying out controls to reduce the incidence of congenital syphilis that in Colombia, according to Sivigila in 2013, has five times more cases than the goal determined by PAHO, in addition to being one of the diseases, together with the Maternal Child Transmission of HIV, which by 2015 should have eliminated. It is also possible to evidence a misuse of clinical protocols and guides by the doctors of IPS and health personnel, due to the presence of certain situations such as the large number of births by caesarean section in which Surgical alternative is used inadequately and unnecessary. This usually happens because of a great barrier that exists in health care that is its financing, which is very related to the economic capacity of each user of the system. 

Problems such as the increase in unnecessary caesarean sections, minimum amount of health personnel, especially nursing professionals, lack of supplies to carry out procedures, among others, are the result of the reduction of costs, by the government in an attempt For optimizing health care results. This situation goes against the main objective of the health system that is to ensure the well -being of Colombians, and on the contrary, it puts them at risk; since today health has become a kind of business in which influences, goods, resources and wealth are the key to a population minority to access quality care that should be offered to every Colombian of the same way and in the same proportion. In that case, the ideal would be for health providing institutions to implement actions in which the Universal Health Law can be achieved through strategies that take primary care as the center of the system, promoting equity and commitment to the process of care and intervention of people’s health and not only seek economic efficiency that only reduces the quality of the services provided since quality in the health sector should focus mainly on the patient.

Then, measures to seek and intervene to the key population and at risk must be improved, in order to prevent the disease before having to treat it and thus reduce future expenses that could be easily avoided in this way. As is the case with chronic noncommunicable diseases, which tend to increase their number of affected than in the population between 27 and 60 years, covering 71.4 – 82.4% of the demand for care. These diseases and their respective economic expenses could be avoided if risk factors such as obesity, tobacco and alcohol consumption and poor diet are fought. On the other hand, the proportion of hospital re -entry went from 1.82% in 2009 to 1.35% in 2014, indicating a need to improve the follow -up of patients with factors that increase the risk of re -entry and thus reduce unnecessary expenses In the attention of these. Also, through the continuous improvement of healthcare processes and the increase in the use of clinical practice guidelines, the decrease in intrahospital deaths can be achieved.