Donabedian Model Summary

Donabedian’s paradigm: Performance-driven planning in a healthcare setting
“Avedis Donabedian in many respects, he was the first to recognize the systemic nature of healthcare delivery along with providing a framework for the assessment of the quality of medical care by defining three elements that influence the delivery of care: structure, process, and outcome” (Sadeghi, 2013, p.58). One of the well-known models in accessing the performance of healthcare is the Donabedian model, proposed by Avedis Donabedian in the year 1966. One primary benefit of this model is its flexibility in assessing quality care in different scenarios. It’s a relationship between three domains. The first is structure; it deals with physical and organizational aspects of the personnel delivering healthcare. These include hospitals, healthcare facilities, technology, equipment available, operational and financial processes supporting healthcare. Secondly, process, this refers to the standard practices and protocols that are followed in providing healthcare. It also includes the resources and mechanisms supported by personnel. Thirdly, outcomes, it refers to the results achieved from the healthcare provided. To be more precise, what are the practices followed that results in the

It deliberately does not include economic, social and patient factors as these are outside of the healthcare delivery system. The key take away from this framework is that Structure and Processes that deliver healthcare to a patient cannot work in isolation and has to be positioned to coordinate care to bring better Outcomes. Donabedian proposes that "there are relationships between structure, process and outcome paradigms based on the idea that good structure should stimulate proper process, and the good process should, in turn, promote good outcome” (Ameh, S, 2017,