THE USE OF THE EXCELLENCE EFQM MODEL IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR

Abstract

As the healthcare sector is under growing pressure to enhance patient outcomes and reduce costs, quality management systems are becoming increasingly essential to ensure high-quality care and efficient operations. The EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model serves as a framework for assessing an organization's quality management system. This paper provides an overview of the implementation of EFQM in the healthcare sector based on the literature analysis. Findings revealed that the EFQM model is unsuitable for the hospital sector and needs to be customized before it can be used for practical application. In addition, the EFQM model can also be integrated into local, national, or international country-specific models. However, regarding the model's application sector, the EFQM model can be applied to any specialty (emergencies, medical services, primary care services, intensive care services, and so on). To the best of our knowledge, the proposed study is the first that sheds light on the importance of the integration and customization of the EFQM model when it is used in the healthcare sector by various case studies in the literature.