ABSTRACT
Background: The quality of pediatric healthcare is a cornerstone for good maternal and infant health. Aims: To evaluate the quality of healthcare in secondary and tertiary regional pediatric hospitals in the Russian Federation. Methods: Healthcare quality assessment was performed in 21 pediatric hospitals (tertiary, n=5; secondary, n=16) of four regions. The WHO recommendations were used. Results: In all regions, similar traits of inpatient pediatric healthcare determining a poor quality were observed. These included low preparedness for emergent care at admission departments; a high rate of unjustified hospitalization due to lack of clear indications for inpatient care; a widespread polypharmacy and unnecessary painful procedures and treatment; inadequate unjustified antimicrobial and parenteral therapy. Conclusions: The revealed identity of problems in different regions of the country allows to consider a common strategy to overcome them, which, obviously, should primarily involve education of medical personnel, restructuring of hospital beds to increase day care beds, increasing the clinical expert work in hospitals.
