Quality function deployment for developing a customized social medical service

Abstract

This article describes the use of quality function deployment in orienting clinical social medicine to a quasi‐market situation. The study shows that different customers had different requirements. For example, the social welfare office asked for close investigation followed by treatment in which time was not a critical factor, whereas the social insurance office asked for rapid and superficial investigations of a client's ability to work. General needs for improving the provision of information were identified, both for clients and the type of services that could be provided. The conclusion is that quality function deployment can be used as a method of defining and developing social services. However, a strict accommodation of the demands from the quasi‐market would lead to contradictions with the theories used today as the basis for sociomedical services.