Defining Service Quality in an Outpatient Clinic with Complex Constituency The objectives of this project are: (i) to gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the ways patients as customers of an outpatient clinic evaluate health care providers, and (ii) to determine if varying definitions of service quality exist with in a clinic containing a complex constituency. The project site chosen was the set of outpatient clinics at USF Health that makes for a complex site (e.g. eighty different specialties, outpatient surgical units, practicing and academic environment, multi-disciplinary teams at work involving multiple levels of health care professionals and complex inter-personal relationships) to carry out this research. The formal hypothesis can be stated as follows: H1: There exist identifiable differing classes of patients with varying perceptions of Service Quality in an outpatient setting. The subsequent research questions that the research aims to address are that, given that differing patient classes can be identified, do they have an impact on the overall patient-perceived quality and how significant is the impact? The project will contribute to a change in the approach at the clinic from a profession-centered to a patient-centered effort. It will raise the awareness among clinicians about how patients view quality care which can then be integrated into the system, institutionalized over time and thus help them improve their ability to provide quality care as preferred by patients. It will also serve to educate and empower the patients by increasing their participation and strengthening their role as partners with clinicians in a health care system. English
Defining Service Quality in an Outpatient Clinic with Complex Constituency
The objectives of this project are: (i) to gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the ways patients as customers of an outpatient clinic evaluate health care providers, and (ii) to determine if varying definitions of service quality exist with in a clinic containing a complex constituency. The project site chosen was the set of outpatient clinics at USF Health that makes for a complex site (e.g. eighty different specialties, outpatient surgical units, practicing and academic environment, multi-disciplinary teams at work involving multiple levels of health care professionals and complex inter-personal relationships) to carry out this research. The formal hypothesis can be stated as follows: H1: There exist identifiable differing classes of patients with varying perceptions of Service Quality in an outpatient setting. The subsequent research questions that the research aims to address are that, given that differing patient classes can be identified, do they have an impact on the overall patient-perceived quality and how significant is the impact? The project will contribute to a change in the approach at the clinic from a profession-centered to a patient-centered effort. It will raise the awareness among clinicians about how patients view quality care which can then be integrated into the system, institutionalized over time and thus help them improve their ability to provide quality care as preferred by patients. It will also serve to educate and empower the patients by increasing their participation and strengthening their role as partners with clinicians in a health care system.
English