QUALITY MODEL IN HEALTH-CARE - APPLICATIO N OF RESULTS FROM MARKETING-RESEARCH

This paper deals with quality assurance in health care and its relatio n to quality assurance in trade and industry. We present the service q uality model-a model of quality from marketing research- and discuss h ow it can be applied to health care. Traditional quality assurance app ears to have serious flaws. It lacks a general theory of the sources o f hazards in the complex process of patient care and tends to stagnate , for no real improvement takes place. Departing from this criticism, modern quality assurance in health care is marked by: defining quality in a preferential sense as ''fitness for use''; the use of theories a nd models of trade and industry (process-control); an emphasis on anal yzing the process, instead of merely inspecting it; use of the Deming problem solving technique (plan, do, check, act); improvement of the p rocess of care by altering perceptions of parties involved. We present an experience of application and utilization of this method in the Un iversity Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands. The successful applicat ion of this model requires a favorable corporate culture and motivatio n of the health care workers. This model provides a useful framework t o uplift the traditional approach to quality assurance in health care.