Importance-performance analysis for improving patient services in a cardiology department in a Thai government hospital
Abstract
The number of patients looking for high-quality medical care is significantly increased in Thailand. Then, a hospital needs to realize the importance and satisfaction of the patients. We are focusing on the study at the Department of Cardiology in a public hospital located in Bangkok. We found that the average time spent by patients was about 1-2 hours. In the worst case, it can reach 3-4 hours. The objective of this research were to determine which quality factors were needed to be improved and what are the current satisfaction level in each factors. We designed questions and used questionnaire at a five-point scale for the satisfaction and importance scores. We explored eleven factors in terms of reliability, responsiveness, quality for facilities, staff and service system. Then, we analyzed whether there were differences in satisfaction level among the types of patients, the difference between the importance and satisfaction level in these factors. Then, we performed various methods to analyze the performance of the hospital service such as the descriptive analysis, the paired T-Test, gap value and importance-performance analysis. We found that different methods led to an altered conclusion. Hence, the decision maker should determine the proper method based on the hospital policy and resources. The result indicated that the overall level of satisfaction is 3.884 and some factors needed to be improved especially the nurse service quality. Furthermore, the method of payment, e.g. a government support program, social insurance or self-support, did not affect the satisfaction level of patients. In addition, patient suggested that the service at the getting queue card and making an appointment stations should be redesigned to shorten the waiting time. We suggested that the study of simulation with the lean concept can help reduce the waiting time in the Cardiology Department. In future, other departments in the hospital can implement this method to analyze the patient satisfaction to enhance the service level of the hospital.References
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