Service Design for Healthcare Quality Improvement: An Implementation Approach for Enhancing Patient Experience

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to suggest the future direction for applying service design to improve the quality of healthcare as part of hospital service innovation and present implementation plans in Korea, based on a review of quality improvement activities and the current status of service design applications.Methods: Through a literature review, we examined the status of service design introduction and application in the healthcare field, focusing on cases in the US and Europe. The possibility and limitations of service design in the healthcare field were examined through a comparison of oversea and domestic cases.Results: Recently, service design has begun to be applied to the healthcare field worldwide. Service design shows the possibility of an alternative that alleviates and complements the limitations of existing quality improvement activities. It also offers the possibility of creating new organizational improvement and innovation approaches through integration and convergence with existing quality improvement activities and management innovation.Conclusion: To effectively apply service design to hospitals, it is necessary to integrate internal organizations related to service improvement, combine methods, and objectively measure and evaluate performance. To this end, we propose the operation of a nationwide education and training center for quality improvement and service design led by academic society. Service design will provide an opportunity to change the management innovation and organizational culture of hospitals beyond the scope of the current quality improvement, which deals only with micro-subjects of individual hospitals.