Quality assessment for improving healthcare service management

• Published in: Soft computing (Berlin, Germany) Vol. 25; no. 21; pp. 13213 - 13227
• Main Authors: de Araújo Batista, Deise, de Melo, Fagner José Coutinho, de Albuquerque, André Philippi Gonzaga, de Medeiros, Denise Dumke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-11-2021
• Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Computational Intelligence; Control; Engineering; Mathematical Logic and Foundations; Mechatronics; Methodologies and Application; Robotics; Service; Quality assessment; Fuzzy; SERVQUAL Model; QFD
• ISSN: 1432-7643; 1433-7479
• DOI: 10.1007/s00500-021-06175-5

The aim of this study is to carry out an assessment of the quality of services provided to clients of medical clinics, transforming the subjectivity of their perceptions into consistent data to improve health services. We use an approach that integrates the Fuzzy Set Theory and the quality tools QFD and SERVQUAL in the health services sector, reducing the subjectivity of the client's perception of the service provided. According to the results, the requirement with the highest priority was ‘effectiveness'. So, managers need to give higher priority in terms of resources to try to take advantage of the customer's perception. The second high-priority requirement was ‘acceptability’. In relation to this requirement, service managers must prioritize actions related to the care, desires and values of patients and their families. It is interesting to understand the ‘equity' and ‘efficiency' requirements. In this case, the company's managers must observe the priority level over those evaluated with the lowest rating and allocate the company's resources to the highest priority requirements. This approach seeks to contribute to the publication of academic studies in health services, assessing the quality of health services in a more complete and effective way.