Optimizing Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Malaysia: The Current Global Initiatives, Gaps and Suggested Solutions

Abstract

<p><strong>BACKGROUND &amp; OBJECTIVE:</strong> Demand for health care service has significantly increased, while the quality of healthcare has become both a national and an international priority. This paper aims to identify the gaps and the current initiatives for optimizing the quality of care and patient safety in Malaysia.</p><p><strong>DESIGN:</strong> A narrative review of the literature. Highly cited articles were used as the basis to retrieve and review the current initiatives for optimizing the quality of care and patient safety. The country health plan of Ministry of Health (MOH) and the MOH Annual Reports in Malaysia were reviewed.</p><p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>The MOH has set four strategies for optimizing quality and sustaining quality of life. The 10^th Malaysia Health Plan promotes the theme “1 Care for 1 Malaysia” in order to sustain the quality of care. Despite of these efforts, the total number of complaints received by the medico-legal section of the MOH is increasing. The current global initiatives indicted that quality performance generally belong to three main categories: patient; staffing; and working environment related factors.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>There is no single intervention of optimizing quality of care to maintain patient safety. Multidimensional efforts and interventions are recommended in order to optimize the quality of care and patient safety in Malaysia.</p>