Dear Editor, we have read with great interest the publication entitled “Quality of the ophthalmological service to outpatients of the public and private healthcare systems”⁽¹⁾. Hercos and Berezovsky noted that “Satisfaction with the public healthcare system was significantly greater than that with the private healthcare system in terms of the tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance determinants of the SERVQUAL scale⁽¹⁾.” We agree that quality management is important for any medical service, including that related to ophthalmology. Nevertheless, one cannot focus solely on patient satisfaction, which is usually a subjective determinant. In some situations, necessary clinical management might cause patient dissatisfaction. More important focal points in the quality management of services should have been error reduction, patient safety, and effectiveness of clinical management^(2-3). Finally, although the use of any criteria for the accreditation of service could be considered a good idea, it still requires maintenance after quality approval. It should be noted that accredited medical services, such as accredited medical laboratories, can still experience problems related to clinical service errors⁽⁴⁾.

REFERENCES

1. Hercos BVS, Berezovsky A. Quality of the ophthalmological service to outpatients of the public and private healthcare systems. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2017;80(6):350-4.

2. Braune S, Kohnen T. [Establishment of a quality management system in a department of ophthalmology]. Klin Monbl Augenheilkd. 2009;226(8):616-23. German.

3. Bialasiewicz AA, Breidenbach K, Ganesh A, Al-Saeidi R, Ganguly SS; International Standards Organization. [Conceiving and implementing an ISO 9001:2000 quality management system: quality improvement and efficiency increase over 3 years at the Dept. of Ophthalmology, Sultan Qaboos University in Oman]. Ophthalmologe. 2006;103(10):877-87. German.

4. Wiwanitkit V. Types and frequency of preanalytical mistakes in the first Thai ISO 9002:1994 certified clinical laboratory, a 6 - month monitoring. BMC Clin Pathol. 2001;1(1):5.

Submitted for publication: February 27, 2018.
Accepted for publication: March 9, 2018.

Funding: No specific financial support was available for this study

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest: None of the authors have any potential conflict of interest to disclose