Responsiveness is one of the important objectives and criteria of quality in healthcare

Overview

Responsiveness is an important concept in the realm of health care expressing the ability of the system to meet the expectations of patients and to respect their dignity. It is also a valuable criterion for the assessment of the functioning of healthcare facilities as well as of the healthcare system as a whole. Up to now studies have dealt with responsiveness from the patient’s point of view. A more detailed study of responsiveness and its determinants shows that it is desirable to deal with the interpretation of responsiveness in health service workers and to give it an appropriate attention in training and education. The authors inform on the results of a questionnaire survey through which they have been searching for the standpoint of fifthyear medical students in Brno. The objective was to find out what attitude towards responsiveness the students have and which of its areas they consider to be the most important. From the results it follows that the students are fully aware of the importance of those aspects of health care which are connected with respect to the human being, and they perceive the need of devoting a consistent attention to these problems.

Key words:
responsiveness – assessment of the efficiency of healthcare systems – health service workers – questionnaire survey – medical education and professional training.