Empirical study on integrated quality healthcare system practice for health care establishments in Tamilnadu

Abstract

newline Presently, Healthcare service industry is growing without boundary. The ever-growing awareness on health among individuals results in proliferation of Health Care Establishments (HCEs). Nevertheless, most of the hospitals try to deliver quality healthcare service by adapting one or two quality management systems, which could not satisfy the different aspects of customers who come from various social, economical and cultural backgrounds. In the context of the importance given to Health Care Quality (HCQ), an effort was taken to develop a new model called Integrated Quality Healthcare System (IQHS) to measure the quality of service in newlineHCEs in terms of upgraded quality of service, improved healthcare environment, reduced operating cost of healthcare establishment, patient satisfaction, patient safety and employees satisfaction in healthcare establishments. The IQHS is nothing but a model structured through integration of various industrial engineering concepts namely TQM, Lean Management, Six Sigma (DMAIC methodology), Knowledge Management, ISO 9001:2008 QMS, ISO 14001:2000 EMS, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSAS 18001:2007) and CSR. The model comprises ten critical factors drawn from different quality systems and concepts by reviewing various research studies. The critical factors are: Top Management Commitment newline(TMC), Customer Satisfaction (CS), Health Care Work Force (HCWF), Health Care Infrastructure (HCI), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Knowledge Management (KM), Hospital Culture (HC), Health Care Insurance Programme (HCIP), System for Sustainability (SS) and Hospital Environment (HE). newline