Application of the focus group interview method to ensure the participation of citizens in improving the quality of medical care

Abstract

This article presents the results of a project implemented by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank).

“The Social Health Insurance” project was aimed to the creating a culture of citizen participation in ensuring improvements made to the health sector, involving patients in reforming the health system, as well as encouraging an active search for a balance between the needs of the population and public health opportunities. The most important aspect of the project was the creation of discussions and debates at the level of individual medical organizations with using sociological research tools, the most important of which were focus groups.

Focus groups represent a flexible method of sociological research that has a long history of application to obtain qualitative data. The article discusses the experience of adapting focus group interviews to ensure the participation of citizens in improving the quality of medical services as part of the pilot implementation of the mechanism of informed public monitoring and feedback.

Focus group discussions organized in 17 medical organizations have become a tool for involving citizens in the processes of reforming the healthcare system, forming a constructive dialogue between patients and medical institutions, and also made it possible to achieve a balance between the needs of the population and the possibilities of public health. As a result of the analysis of 298 focus groups with patients of polyclinics and hospitals, the authors showed the suitability and effectiveness of this method for identifying the needs and preferences of the population attached to medical organizations.

In the course of focus group interviews, both problems at the level of functioning of individual medical organizations (organization of medical appointments, medical tests and instrumental diagnostic procedures; hospitalization procedures; regulation of queues, appointments to individual specialists, etc.) and those requiring solutions at the institutional level (shortage of personnel; qualification and competence of medical personnel; drug provision, especially in rural localities, etc.).