Page 33 - 2018

Ph.D.
(Management)
A STUDY ON QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT MODEL FOR
IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY OF HOSPITALS

Ph.D. Scholar : Patel Nikita Maheshbhai
Research Supervisor : Dr.N. H. Bhatt

Regi. No.: 13146031005
Abstract :
All the human being wish to be healthy and live a life without any kind of illness
throughout life. Hospital is a typical service that people need but do not necessarily wish
for it. Hospital services are very complex in nature because consumers have limited
information and it is highly customized. Demand for hospital service is unevenly
distributed and it is also urgent in nature. Variations in hospital service quality may occur
from one hospital to other because hospital services are labour intensive in nature. A
hospital has to provide services which are going to satisfy health needs of the population.
In the service economy, hospital sector is one of the fastest growing sector. Rapid growth
is also observed in this sector due to aging population, high competitive pressures and
innovative treatments and technologies. Previously, hospital sector was focusing only on
managing supply of resource; they were not focusing on quality assessment and
improvement. However, as the structure of health care industry has changed, the role of
patients in defining hospital quality has become more specific. Now a day hospital sector
is considering service quality as critical component for achieving competitiveness. To
offer new product or service one need to understand need and expectation of customer.
Patients and their family member who are accompanying them in hospital are generally
considered as consumers to provide hospital services. Translating the patient’s need and
expectation into actual service offering is one of the ways to make hospital services more
responsive to patient’s need. This research aims to develop Quality Function Deployment
model (QFD) to improve service quality of hospitals in Gujarat state.

First of all to develop background of the research that is rational of study, basic
information was collected i.e. definition of services, its typical characteristics,
classification, role of service sector in Indian economy, different approaches to measure
and improve service quality like SERVQUAL, Kano model and QFD. As this research is
focused on service quality of hospital in Gujarat state, details about Indian healthcare
sector with specific reference to Gujarat State were also collected.

After finding out rational of the study, review of previously conducted studies in the area
of service quality measurement, Kano model for classifying service quality
characteristics, Quality function deployment model and integrated model of

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