ABSTRACT

In today's world in which patient and employee safety problems have come to the fore, quality improvement for health institutions has become a necessity. Besides administration and employees, patients and their relatives’ participation is also important in quality improvement activities in health care services. In order to get a correct and reliable service, further participation and contribution of the patients to the process is required. In addition to patients' own health care, the participation of patients and their relatives in health care services can also include the management-organization process and the policy development level. Health care facilities and systems should consider the opinions of experienced patients to improve their service quality. The opinions of the patient and community on both care and treatment clearly indicates what is good or bad about the treatment they receive in terms of how they live and cope with diseases, access to the health care services they need and encounter difficulties along this process. The quality of health care services and the risk of exposure to medical errors depend on the capability of effective evaluation and usage of health information by patients.