Focus on the Quality and Governance of Healthcare Services

Dear Colleagues, 

Caring has been a vital component in the patient-and-healthcare-provider relationship in order to maintain high-quality healthcare and positive clinical and healthcare outcomes. Therefore, in order to enhance the quality of healthcare, it is necessary to focus on compassionate, patient-centered care to improve healthcare outcomes [1,2]. Based on patients’ complaints about their healthcare providers’ attitudes and behaviors [3,4], in order to address the relationship between patients and healthcare providers, there is a need to develop strategies involving the transmission of care and humanistic qualities to healthcare students and providers because, when care is delivered in a humanistic way, it can lead to better medical and health care outcomes [5]. 

This Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the quality and governance of healthcare services and aims to help healthcare students and providers to improve the quality of medical care and provide better medical services for patients. 

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following: 

• The quality of healthcare services;
• Caring behavior;
• Healthcare students and providers;
• Psychometric properties;
• Hospital environmental and service design;
• Healthcare administration.

 References 

[1] Bertakis KD, Azari R. Patient-centered care is associated with decreased health care utilization. J Am Board Fam Med. 2011;24:229–239.

[2] Stewart M, Brown JB, Donner A, et al. The impact of patient-centered care on outcomes. J Fam Pract. 2000;49:796–804.

[3] Santo-Novak DA. Older adults’ descriptions of their role expectations of nursing. J Gerontol Nurs. 1997;23:32–40. 

[4] Hogg R, Hanley J, Smith P. Learning lessons from the analysis of patient complaints relating to staff attitudes, behaviour and communication, using the concept of emotional labour.

[5] Weissmann PF, Branch WT, Gracey CF, et al. Role modeling humanistic behavior: learning bedside manner from the experts. Acad Med. 2006;82:661–667. 

Prof. Dr. Hung-Chang Liao
Prof. Dr. Ya-huei Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.