WELCOME TO THE HOMEPAGE OF THE

UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTHCARE QUALITY
of Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University

(Masaryk University, Medical Faculty, Kamenice 126/3, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
in Czech: Univerzitní centrum pro kvalitu ve zdravotnictví LF MU, (U-CeKZ)

FUNCTIONS of U-CeKZ:

· Collect and process and use data regarding the quality and safety of public health care for use by professionals and all other interested parties

· Serve the needs of a national and international network of co-workers and affiliated organizations, co-ordinate local activities with activities and organizations abroad

· Assist in creating health care indicators and standards

· Use and expand internationally accepted methods, models and systems serving continuous improvement of quality and safety in health care

· Support all activities of our collaborators and affiliated organizations leading to improved quality and safety in health care

· Provide education and training in the above specified fields

· Examine and evaluate the quality and safety of provided health care

· Support the involvement of health care consumers and their families in activities associated with improving quality and safety in the health care and health related services

· Promote effective financing of the health care system, employ and disseminate use of state-of-the-art information and communication technologies for improving the quality of quality and safety in health services

FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS of U-CeKZ:

· QMS (Quality Management Server) – work environment: collection and management of documents and data, authorized access for all persons involved with U-CeKZ using LAN and WAN, collaborative creation of documents, consensual matters, dictionary of health care quality terminology, directory of people and organizations, access to ICT tools.

· Measurement / HTA (health technology assessment) / Standardization – economics, risks, professional criteria, ethics, co-ordination with national registers, co-ordination of aggregate data-sets relating to assessment of health service systems, Standards of Efficient Medical Care (SEMC), standardization of processes in health care facilities based on objective data.

· Healthcare Quality (introduction of the EFQM – balanced scorecard model for quality, management of quality, use of ISO 9004:2000 in the public health system). Patient safety.

· Accreditation and certification in health care - (voluntary model, mutual assistance, use of foreign experience, backed up and recognized by the Ministry of Health, modified model for laboratories working in the health sector) Co-operation (with patients' associations and health related special-interest groups, public relations and media, seminars, training, conferences, education, WWW).

· International co-operation - European Foundation for Quality Management – EFQM, European Societies for Quality in Health Care – ESQH, International Society for Quality in Health Care – ISQua, International Society for Assessment, CEESTAHC – Central and Eastern European Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care, World Health Association – WHO, DG SANCO Working Parties.

· Strategies and policy / research and development – development and application of new tools, information science, analyses, model design, scenarios.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK:

CeKZ was founded on September 25, 2001 on the basis of the recommendation of the Committee for Health Service Quality and the decision of the Council of the Ministry of Health and reorganized to become the U-CeKZ, University Center in February 2006

· U- CeKZ is a methodical coordinating and information base for implementation of monitoring of the quality and effectiveness of health care in the context of service improvement of health care facilities. Quality and effectiveness monitoring programs are implemented using the project management approach to secure their dynamic development

· Financing: budgetary, EU contributions, grants, health insurance, sponsors (multi-source financing)

THE MASARYK UNIVERSITY ( www.muni.cz and www.med.muni.cz ) :

Is the second largest university in the Czech Republic. In the academic year 2005/2006 it served a population of 30.772 pre- and postgraduate students. Students of the Faculty of Medicine numbered 4500.

The University Center for Quality in Health Care is one of the Research Centers of the University. It currently employs 4 full-time employees, three of which hold an academic degree. The method of work predominantly used is project management integrating professionals from the various Faculties and Centers of the University for specific tasks

The creation of U-CeKZ involved the networking of human resources and materials in order to conceive, not a traditional “stone office” institute, but a distributed work-group with:

- The ability to describe the environment and ongoing processes in the public health system
- The ability to define the methodology and tools for implementing change
- The ability to learn and implement project management (operational departments – all departments to employ the same methods and approaches to work)
- A clearly elaborated conceptual and operational dimension (management and work-flow description of institutions)

Useful links in the Czech Republic www.mediquali.cz (Quality in Czech Healthcare) www.cskz.cz (Czech Society for Health Care Quality) and in Europe www.ceestahc.org (Central and Eastern European Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care) www.improhealth.org (e-Learning in Health Care Quality Management) www.ceeqnet.com (Central and Eastern European Quality Network) www.childhealthresearch.eu (RICHE, A platform and inventory for child health research in Europe)

Main finished and ongoing projects managed by CeKZ in years 2001/2008
1	Modular system of health care quality assurance
2	Implementation of standardized methods of measuring quality and efficacy of care as part of the process of CQI and accreditation of health care providers
3	Strategies and opportunities for implementing clinical effectivity and hospital quality management models
4	Quality health care management at the community level
5	Elaboration of the standards of therapeutic and diagnostic care
6	Health technology assessment – the use of data resources for HTA
7	Quality and efficacy of intensive care
8	Nosocomial infection monitoring and epidemiological management in hospital settings
9	Standardization in nursing and midwifery
10	Quality seen through the eyes of a patient /inpatient services/
11	Integrated project on radiation safety standards and their assessment
12	Integrated project on the use of guidelines / standards by GP doctors
13	Standards for restrictive methods in psychiatric care
14	IMPROHEALTH – Improvement of the Quality, Effectiveness and Efficiency of Healthcare Services throughout Managerial Vocational Education and Training
15	ENQual - Exchange of knowledge on Quality Management in health care
16	CEEQNET - Unified central and eastern European surveillance and monitoring system for health care quality and efficiency indicators
17	U-CeKZ co-organized the 11th European Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care www.quality.bmjpg.com
18	U-CeKZ is partner in ESQH SIMPATIE Project - (DG Sanco project) work package No. 4 – Patient Safety Indicators and Vocabulary
19	U-CeKZ is project partner for the Scientific Assistant Office of the Health Systems Working Party of DG Sanco
20	U-CeKZ collaborated in Scientific platform of the working party lifestyle and other health determinants”(Work package No 5), based on the EC grant agreement no 2005111
21	U-CeKZ is project partner of IMPROHEALTH COLLABORATIVE - Vocational Education and Training for Quality of Life through eHealthCare & Well Being’ – Collaborative Quality Function Deployment, Valorisation and Dissemination of the results of IMPROHEALTH project
22	U-CeKZ is project partner of RICHE, A platform and inventory for child health research in Europe. Grant agreement no.: 242181 (starting date Feb. 2010), SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME, THEME 1, HEALTH. For basic information please use the following link: www.childhealthresearch.eu for information about the role of U-CEKZ please use the following link: RICHE

The overall budget of the managed projects in the period of 2001-2010 was over 1.6 million Euro.