Quality management in healthcare

The purpose of this study is to specify the parameters that make up the quality of service in health institutions according to the results of the survey conducted among the service users. The general opinion is that quality is defined as "meeting the needs and wishes of customers" and it is clear that the elements that make up the quality can only be fully defined by the customers in line with this definition. In this direction, it has been tried to define what is considered as the quality of care with the data collected from the people who directly evaluate the care in the study. The study aims to decide on the factors that are important on making up the quality of medical care based on the statements of the people who receive medical services directly. In this context, in-depth interview method, which is a qualitative analysis method, was used and semi-structured interview questions were used. Interview data were classified according to service quality measurements in the literature. In addition to the five dimensions of the ServQual scale, which is widely used in the assessment of service quality in classification, the dimensions of "knowledge" and "quality of care" are evaluated. Interviews in Tekirdağ province with 93 people and the participants were randomly selected from among those living in these provinces. The explanations given in the interviews were tried to be classified according to the most appropriate qualitative parameter. All expressions can be classified according to the quality, wealth, reliability, sensitivity, trust, empathy and knowledge of technical services. It is seen that the existing quality parameters have an important explanatory power in determining the service quality in terms of classifying all expressions within the existing parameters. However, when the statements in the ServQual scale are compared with the statements of the participants, it is clear that they are insufficient in terms of evaluating the quality of health services. One of the most important issues in the evaluation of service quality is the effect of participants on the process and therefore on quality. The number and behavior of other participants in the service process affect all quality parameters. Relationships between quality parameters make evaluation difficult. In addition, the fact that participatory expressions cover different dimensions at the same time makes classification processes difficult. Hygiene, deadlines, adequacy of personnel, personnel and equipment in terms of quantity and variety draw attention as factors affecting all other quality parameters stated by the majority of the participants. As a result of this study, it has been figured out that the sensation of the service quality can be measured through quality parameters that increase service efficiency, customers attach great importance to quality parameters and the most important quality parameter affecting their expectations is reliability. The least touching dimension is information. It has been observed that the service quality perceptions of the patients directly affect the preferences of returning to the same hospital and recommending it to their friends.