How the Management of Conflicts Affects the Quality and Organization of Healthcare Provision

Introduction: Health systems nowadays target on providing quality and safe health care, areas that are positively evaluated by healthcare users.

Aim: Exploration of the impact of conflicts of health professionals on the quality of the provided care.

Material and Method: A critical review of 28 selected articles was carried out. The literature search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL and Web of Science with adequate words index.

Results: Conflicts are not uncommon during the care provision process. They impact variably the quality of the care and they threaten interdisciplinary collaboration at every level of hierarchy. The reactions of health professionals in an impending conflict vary according to their hierarchical position, labor and organizational conditions, and other demographic factors. However, conflicts are often perceived as an opportunity to improve communication and cooperation, but in some cases they may become completely disruptive and result in ineffective cooperation and deteriorated quality of care. Healthcare professionals share a special cooperative relationship based on expectations of roles based on power, influence and prevalence.

Conclusions: The quality of services and their high degree of safety depend to a large extent on the development of conflicts during the care provision.