Quality of hospital care for children in Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, and Russia: systematic observational assessment.

Background: Major concerns about the quality of basic hospital care for children have been raised in developing countries, but no formal assessment applying international standards has been done in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Methods: We assessed 17 hospitals in Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, and the Russian Federation with a generic WHO hospital assessment framework adapted for use in the WHO European region. WHO management guidelines for paediatric care in peripheral hospitals were used as standards.