- Статьи
- Economy
- Market evaluation: private clinics will start to be awarded stars for quality of services
Market evaluation: private clinics will start to be awarded stars for quality of services
Private clinics in Russia will be awarded stars depending on the quality and safety of the services offered - on the principle of hotels. Izvestia has learned that this evaluation methodology will be created by the public, Roszdravnadzor and Rospotrebnadzor. This approach will improve the work of such organizations: in the first nine months of 2024, the number of complaints against them increased by 15.5%, calculated in the "Public Consumer Initiative".
How private clinics will be awarded stars
At the end of the year, the Federation Council Committee on Regulations and Organization of Parliamentary Activities held a round table, it was devoted to the problems of protecting the rights of consumers who seek medical services in private clinics. In addition to senators and public figures, it was attended by officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor. At the meeting, in particular, they discussed negative trends in this segment. "Izvestia" has familiarized itself with the minutes on its results.
Thus, the number of people's complaints against private medical organizations is growing in the Russian Federation: in the first nine months of 2024, their number jumped by 15.5% to 13.8 thousand, calculated in the "Public Consumer Initiative" (PCI) on the basis of official statistics, which the authorities have not yet disclosed. First of all, we are talking about comments on the work of medical personnel. In the Russian Federation there are 73.5 thousand private polyclinics, while the state ones are much less - 26.3 thousand organizations.
Moreover, in the minutes, the Federation Council mentions that in the third quarter of 2024, Roszdravnadzor conducted 1.4 thousand inspections, 12% of them - at private providers. Almost every one (93%) showed that non-state clinics violate mandatory requirements, nine out of ten medical organizations allow it, the document says.
Therefore, as a result of the meeting, Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor, as well as OPI recommended creating a methodology for evaluating private providers of paid services. We are talking about a rating, which in practice is realized as a star system, similar now operates in relation to hotels. It can be both stars themselves and letter designations - A, B, C or other reference points.
- Now the supervisory authorities are limited in their actions: for example, due to the moratorium on inspections, regulators cannot punish violators. Therefore, it is important to create a system of incentives for clinics that do not violate the rules. For a correct assessment we need a methodology, which we are currently developing," Oleg Pavlov, head of OPI, told Izvestia. - The basis will be the assessment of compliance with mandatory requirements - availability of license, disclosure of mandatory information to consumers, as well as analysis of the performance indicators of a medical institution - it's turnover, headcount and so on. This array of data will be compared with the dynamics of violations, warnings and lawsuits. Such an assessment will be carried out by agencies, public, industry participants and their associations.
Oleg Zemtsov, a member of the SF Committee on Regulations, noted that the number of violations and their signs in private clinics is growing, so "this area can be considered as one of the priority areas for the introduction of such mechanisms."
- Stars or points can also be used to assess characteristics that do not affect the quality and safety of services: satisfaction with the service, convenience of the website, politeness of the staff, breadth of the list of services provided and much more," he told Izvestia.
The editorial board sent requests to Rospotrebnadzor, Roszdravnadzor, and the Ministry of Economic Development. Medsi, Invitro, Gemotest, Mother and Child, and EMC declined to comment.
How clinics abroad are awarded stardom
The evaluation of private clinics may take into account violations and signs of violations that regulators have already recorded earlier, Nikolay Bespalov, development director of RNC Pharma, told Izvestia. He believes that in order to implement such an approach, it is necessary to develop criteria by which experts will determine how qualitatively the service was provided, taking into account the opinion of patients.
- Rating of clinics should be based not on formal assignment of stars, but on the basis of patient satisfaction with the result of medical services, - he emphasized. - For example, this is already done abroad, for example, in Germany or Israel, where private clinics are already assigned stars.
This approach has potential: in this way it is possible to improve the transparency and competitiveness of the market, agrees with his colleague Vladimir Alexandrovsky, founder and general director of Fantasy Medical Group.
- It will be easier for patients to navigate when choosing clinics. But for successful implementation, it is important that the evaluation methodology be objective, independent and based on real indicators of service quality. Otherwise, there is a risk of creating a formal system that does not reflect the real state of affairs," he said. - There is a similar practice in a number of foreign countries, including America, Great Britain and Germany. For example, in the U.S., Medicare and Medicaid ratings have been created: hospitals receive stars for the quality of treatment, patient satisfaction and frequency of adverse outcomes.
The UK has a Care Quality Commission system that inspects and publishes ratings on the quality of care. Germany uses quality checks as part of compulsory health insurance, and the results are then made available to patients. The key aspect of ratings in these countries is a high degree of transparency and independence of the process, as well as the use of evidence-based data, the expert emphasized.
- Despite this, this approach contains risks. For example, it is subjective and corrupt, discriminating against small clinics and increasing their costs. If the criteria are unclear or the process is not transparent, it may lead to formalization of ratings. Also, small institutions may be at a disadvantage, as they are not always able to meet bureaucratic requirements, although the quality of medical care may be high," says the expert.
Control over the quality of care in medical organizations of any form of ownership is already provided for in the legislation and is actively used, Sergei Anufriev, director of the St. Petersburg Medical Forum, reminded Izvestia. According to him, additional regulation of exclusively private clinics contradicts antimonopoly legislation.
- All over the world there are mechanisms of voluntary accreditation of various processes, some Russian private clinics already do, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel," he said.
The issue of star rating and quality audits all over the world is decided by medical associations or special agencies, the expert noted. Currently, no such organization in the Russian Federation does similar work and does not publish its conclusions. According to him, it is possible to make public reports with medical and statistical indicators of medical organizations.
