Quality management in healthcare

Abstract

Purpose. In the article the research is looked upon which has been carried out in Latvia health care institutions, higher educational establishments, sports clubs and other places with an intent to find out Latvia people’s opinion about the service quality of the provided health care and also what is understood by a qualitative service. The peculiarity of the health care system is that the healthy ones are paying for the unhealthy ones indirectly with the help of taxis. Even though the service is received mostly by the unhealthy people right now, the opinion of these consumers has not been analysed properly yet. During the research 449 respondents were questioned. According to A.Patwardhan1 the following factors are important in the health care provision: technical and clinical, communication between people, and physicians’’ accessibility and their provided services. The research analyses directly the doctors’ communication abilities with the patients and the accessibility of the provided services, for right now it is not quite clear how to assess objectively the doctors’ clinical competence, although the respondents also have to assess the competence. The goal of the research is to study the service and quality of Latvia health care system which is offered to the clients.

Design /Methodology /Approach. The client-patient is the one who the medical institutions provide their services for and who the services are meant for. If it were like that, then it is very important to focus on the client as it is in most of the business. However, the research reveals a totally opposite picture that the doctors do not appreciate their clients so highly. It is proved by using questionnaires of 449 respondents in 8 different places in Latvia.

Research Limitations. The questionnaire as the means to acquire the information about the quality of the provided service is the only way how to obtain the clients’ opinion. However, it is hard to standardise and validate this approach. In order not to have a query about the obtained results, it is necessary to make a selective set which reflects the social content more closely. It is important to take into account that quite often the person’s health and the attending physician are a closed topic, for the people are not often willing to express themselves, which is shown by the results of the questionnaires, where a surprisingly big number of respondents consider themselves as practically healthy ones, even though they are in the medical institution.

Originality/Practical Implications. The research gives an opportunity to get to know what the respondents think about the quality of the treatment process and what the most important components are. The obtained outcomes will be used in the formation of the quality assessment model in health care which will be useful for the managers of the clinics.

Findings. The most important thing for the clients in cooperation with the doctors is the communication and its most significant factor is complete information about the things going on and the manipulations done to the client.

Type of Research. Survey