Dear Colleagues

International Congress on Quality in Healthcare Accreditation and Patient Safety, which we will be holding for the eighteenth time this year, will be held in Antalya on May 01-04, 2024. Quality management in healthcare service delivery is a sine qua non condition, especially in servers with corporate structure. The ideal thing in this management model is service delivery that develops from the bottom up in line with general strategies directed from the top or from the center. Diagnosing and searching for solutions to quality-related problems in healthcare delivery at home, together with patient relatives and employees, provides much more successful results than trying to ensure the implementation of cliché quality programs prepared in packages. Starting from where the staff works, discussing the concept of quality, ensuring their participation, and working on the problems they face in real life are the basic steps that will ensure the spontaneous improvement of quality. The mission of the congress, which will be attended by many representatives of international institutions and experts, will be to interpret the understanding of quality in the axis of health services with different applications. The intensive efforts made by the Association of Healthcare Academicians, a non-governmental organization, in this field and these congresses have caused stakeholders to increase their awareness of quality and accreditation issues in health, while these issues have never been on the Turkish health agenda, it has served as a kind of school for many health professionals and is trying to continue its mission with dedication. 

As always, this year, we are trying to put together a program that shares the latest research on improving quality, accreditation, and patient safety in healthcare, offering you new ideas and international perspectives, providing result-oriented learning and many opportunities to connect and collaborate during and after the conference. 

Thanks to presentations, workshops, oral and poster presentations to be held during the congress, participants have the opportunity to get acquainted with approaches that improve the quality of healthcare services provided in cooperation with users, service providers and organizations that finance services, as well as new systems and ideas that go beyond traditional approaches. As always, our eighteenth congress, which will take place primarily in Turkey, will offer the opportunity to review the latest developments in the provision of healthcare services worldwide in terms of quality, accreditation, patient and employee safety, problems in the provision of healthcare services, the effects of these problems on corporate performance improvement and solution proposals together with healthcare professionals from Turkey and around the world. Congress participants have been able to discuss basic approaches to ensuring accreditation, patient and employee safety to this day and have had the opportunity to test new systems and ideas that go beyond traditional boundaries.  However, the Main Theme of this year's congress is “Quality in Healthcare in Turkey and the World, Accreditation for Patient Safety and Risk Management, Clinical Leadership and the Financial Costs of Quality” with the idea that it would be useful for all of us to discuss the path taken over the years, reviewing the gained experiences and strengthening communication between patients and healthcare professionals, considering that it is time to discuss the empowerment of patients and healthcare professionals more comprehensively.  

The objectives of the congress are to discuss the experiences gained related to quality, accreditation, patient and employee safety in healthcare services, for example;  

1.         Patient safety, risk management and reduction of medical errors 

2.         Review of existing methods for preventing incidents that threaten the safety of patients and employees caused by healthcare, the importance of evidence-based practices, current practices, and difficulties in implementation 

3.         The role of research in the identification of innovative methods, the integration of epidemiological, organizational behaviors and their application principles into quality improvement practices in hospitals and other health institutions 

4.         Governance to improve community health; implementation of improvement approaches focusing on health outcomes and health inequalities 

5.         Improving patient safety across borders. Examples of cooperation between organizations and sectors (e.g., health, social care, education)

6.         Management of chronic diseases

7.         Control and prevention of health care-related infections in health institutions. Surveillance studies, control, and prevention strategies in these centers

8.         Cost studies, cost-affecting changes, or innovations in the prevention of health care-related infections

9.         Patient-Oriented Care

10.         Innovations in health technologies

11.         Health system infrastructure

12.       Cost-effectiveness in service delivery and maintenance

13.       Manpower planning and training in health service delivery

14.       Information Management systems, automation, and communication technologies

15.       Moral and ethical behavior in the provision of health services.

16.       Information Management systems, automation, and communication technologies

17.       Moral and ethical behavior in the provision of health services.

18.       Risk Management

19.       Health Tourism. 

The International Congress on Quality in Healthcare Accreditation and Patient Safety has been creating a platform for discussing methods and innovations that improve quality in health services and ensure patient and employee safety since the beginning of the 2000s and provides participants with the opportunity to discuss the necessary experiences and practices to provide safer, more effective, and decent health services.  

We hope that you will join us at our eighteenth congress that will be held in Antalya. 

Best regards

Prof. Dr. Seval Akgün                                                                          Prof. Dr. Allen C. MEADORS, (Congress Co-chair)