The pandemic of the Coronavirus 19 disease (COVID-19) has had significant impact on healthcare systems worldwide. The present study aims to investigate the service providers’ quality dimensions in public sector hospitals in the Republic of Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose a sustainable model for healthcare improvement. The study was conducted from September 2021 to December 2021. A modified SERPERF quality measurement questionnaire was distributed to healthcare workers in nine secondary care public hospitals of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV). Six hundred one questionnaires were found to be complete in all aspects and compared to 528 questionnaires from the database of the Provincial Secretariat for Health Care obtained from healthcare workers before the COVID-19 outbreak. The present study suggests that supportive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic are effective and, from the providers’ perception, increase healthcare quality. Continual investment in healthcare would provide sustainable development of healthcare quality in the future, regardless of the pandemic conditions.

Introduction/Objective. Locally advanced lung cancer (LC) is often accompanied with atelectasis of either a part or the entire lung. The aim of this study was to establish the benefits of brachytherapy on the patients? quality of life (QoL), the length of the progression free survival (PFS), and the overall survival (OS) as related to the presence or absence of atelectasis after the applied treatment. Methods. The total of 100 patients with locally advanced LC or endobronchial metastasis of other malignancy were treated with the high dose rate endobronchial brachytherapy (HDR-EBB) in 2017. For observing the patients? clinical characteristics, the PFS and OS, the patients were classified into four groups according to the presence of atelectasis before and after HDR-EBB. Results. After HDR-EBB alone or combined with other treatment modalities, a statistically significant symptom alleviation was registered for all the symptoms except cough (p<0.05). The significantly highest PFS value was registered among the patients with atelectasis prior but not after HDR-EBB. The longest survival was registered in the patients who had atelectasis prior to, but not after HDR-EBB, as well as among the patients without of atelectasis either before or after EBB. Conclusion. HDR-EBB is an efficient method that improved the QoL of most patients. There were improved rates of re-aeration after HDR-EBB treatment alone and as a part of combined treatment. Re-aeration after EBB is a positive prognostic factor with respect to PFS and OS of these patients.

Introduction/Objective Breast cancer surgery is associated with the risk of developing functional constraints that may negatively affect the quality of patients' lives. The objective of the study was to determine the impact of early postoperative exercises three months after surgery on functional recovery and the quality of life of patients who were operated on. Methods A group of 149 patients was tested, divided by the type of surgery into two groups. The assessment of the quality of life by the SF-36 questionnaire and functional testing were done three months after surgery; the extent of movement in the shoulder joint and of the limbs was measured as well. Results On basic measurements of the quality of life, the average results of SF-36 showed the highest values in the domain of physical functioning, while the lowest value was in the vitality and energy domain. After the realized rehabilitation activities, the results of the SF-36 questionnaire indicated the increase in all domains and components at the significance level of p = 0.001, except for the general health domain (p = 0.04). Preoperatively, a moderate negative association of mobility and the SF-36 questionnaire component with the overall health parameter was determined, whereby the lower value of the SF-36 questionnaire was followed by a larger deviation in the flexion movements and abduction of the shoulder joint. Conclusion The results of our study support the concept of early-initiated rehabilitation interventions and confirm the positive impact on the quality of life of patients operated on for breast cancer in the three-month follow-up period.