[Evaluation of women-centered health care in Taiwan]

A great number of hospitals have already started to develop women-centered wards and out-patient services, but there has been no evaluation from the perspective of gender of the quality of these so-called women-centered health service models and whether they are truly based on women's needs. This article evaluates these service models from a feminist perspective. We performed content analysis of cases at those hospitals that took part in the Department of Health's women-centered health care program in 2002. The results showed that the program's content was based on improvements in hardware and work flow, and, furthermore, enhanced patient privacy and the humanized nature of the patient environment. Some issues, like the interaction between doctor and patient, women's consultation needs, the right to make one's own decisions, and body awareness, were somewhat neglected. Some of the hospitals, however, had achieved break-through reforms and outcomes in management of procedures, innovative services (e.g., women's health centers and databases of women's health management), growth groups and health consultation rooms. In many hospitals, levels of satisfaction among women were raised, but standards of retention and continued development of the effects of the program remain imperfect. Common problems were confusion of the concepts of mother-infant centered and women centered care, lack of consideration of gender mainstreaming, lack of needs assessment, and inadequacy of outcomes evaluation skills.