Application of quality function deployment launches to enhancing nursing home service quality

Abstract

Lately, thanks to the prosperity brought by economic development, medical standards are progressing and people are living longer than before. The average lifespan in Taiwan increased to 74.6 years in 1988, an increase of 0.3 years since 1993; simultaneously however, the population of 65 years old or older in Taiwan is rapidly increasing, reaching 1,990,000 in 2002, representing 8.9% of the total population, making Taiwan an ageing society according to definition set out by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the Yunlin County of Taiwan, the proportion of the population over 65 years was 10.8% in 1998; the ageing index is 53.5, which ranked a high fifth among the Taiwan area (the highest is in Penghu County, 70.9, while the lowest is in Taipei County, 27.8). A highly aged population is associated with large-scale health problems, and thus, the need for nursing homes or organizations is rapidly growing. However, the quality of existing nursing homes/institutes is variable. Notably, the main purpose of caring for elderly people in such homes is not only to help elderly people to live long and healthy lives, but also to improve their quality of life and level of dignity. Therefore, this study focuses on a long term nursing home institute located in Yunlin area, examining its service quality and seeking the voice of customers (VOC) by using Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and using the information obtained to assist the organization in improving service quality, weighing costs against benefits, and assigning a weighting to improve service quality; moreover, this study can provide other nursing organizations with a reference basis in promoting service quality. Regarding Quality Function Deployment, this study introduces the concept of fuzzy theory into the calculations used to determine the house of quality. Furthermore, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is introduced to calculate quality based on client requirements. Finally, the fuzzy utility value computation method is used to determine the technical importance. Since the traditional Quality Function Deployment is too subjective and does not consider correlation among quality factors, this breakthrough of adopting the fuzzy utility value computation to determine the technical importance will make the findings of this study much more objective and tending to consider human nature. According to the findings of this study, the first two areas requiring improvement in nursing organizations are the speed to handle the emergency, and the recruitment of specialized medical personnel. Additionally, this study also creates short-term and long-term improvement plans, and allows organizations to use these as a reference in enhancing service quality.