Third-party Evaluation Program for Primary Care Facilities: Situation in Other Countries and Suggestions for Our Country

Abstract

In Japan, improving the quality of primary care is an urgent issue; however, there is currently no specialized third-party evaluation program for primary care facilities. In this article, prior to the development of Japan's third-party evaluation program for primary care, we examined the systems and standards for the evaluation of primary care facilities in other countries. Based on the comparison of standards for the evaluation of primary care facilities by third-party evaluation agencies in four countries with Japanese hospital evaluation standards, the standards for collecting and utilizing quality data need to be strengthened from the viewpoint of patients, and areas, such as preventive medicine and home care, need to be covered when developing evaluation standards for primary care facilities in Japan. Moreover, building the structure of the standards with primary care as the main framework will strengthen the function of primary care facilities through continuous quality improvement.