Abstract
BackgroundTo determine whether there is greater employee satisfaction in organisations that have made more progress in implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model.MethodsA series of cross-sectional studies (one for each assessment cycle) comparing staff satisfaction survey results between groups of healthcare organisations by degree of implementation of the EFQM model (assessed in terms of external recognition of management quality in each organisation). Setting: 30 healthcare organisations including hospitals, primary care and mental health providers in Osakidetza, the Basque public health service. Participants: Employees of 30 Osakidetza organisations. Intervention: Progress in implementation of EFQM model. Main outcome measures: Scores in 9 dimensions of employee satisfaction from questionnaires administered in healthcare organisations in 4 assessment cycles between 2001 and 2010.ResultsComparing satisfaction results in organisations granted Gold or Silver Q Awards and those without this type of external recognition, we found statistically significant differences in the dimensions of training and internal communication. Then, comparing recipients of Gold Q Awards with those with no Q Certification, differences in leadership style and in policy and strategy also emerged as significant.ConclusionsProgress of healthcare organisations in the implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model is associated with increases in their employee satisfaction in dimensions that can be managed at the level of each organisation, while dimensions in which no statistically significant differences were found represent common organisational elements with little scope for self-management.
Highlights
To determine whether there is greater employee satisfaction in organisations that have made more progress in implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model
The present study aims to assess whether there is an association between the degree of implementation of the EFQM model in 30 healthcare organisations of Osakidetza, at various time points, and the perception of the health service employees, in terms of their level of satisfaction
As in previous studies [16,18], whether an organisation had received an external quality award was used as a proxy for the degree of implementation of the EFQM model; the granting of an award being regarded as a milestone in the organisation, the culmination of previous efforts to deploy quality management based on this excellence model
Summary
To determine whether there is greater employee satisfaction in organisations that have made more progress in implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model. The healthcare organisations that compose the Basque Health Service are granted different levels of independence and responsibility depending on the management area. While some areas, such as strategic policies, and the contracting and payment of staff, are coordinated/centralised at the corporate level; responsibility for others, such as the development of local management plans, training, the organisation of processes and the management of alliances, is decentralised, with the separate healthcare organisations being allowed a greater level of independence. Some of the first milestones along this path were becoming a partner of Euskalit, the Basque Foundation for Quality Promotion [1] (an organisation that promotes improvements in management in the Basque region) and adopting in 1995 the European Foundation Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model [2] as a model of reference for total quality
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