A Two-Level Self-Assessment of Service Quality of Selected Public and Private Hospitals of Nepal Using European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model

Although there are lots of development and improvement in the health sector of Nepal, the quality measurement of Nepali hospitals is yet to be evaluated and accessed. Quality health service with excellent hospital facilities is prime focus of both public and private sector. There is a need of the study to evaluate and access continuous improvement in the health sectors including hospitals. In this study, the EFQM model was used to measure the service provider’s perception towards service quality status improvement and management. This study focused on evaluating service quality of selected public and private hospitals of Nepal by using EFQM excellence model originally developed by European Foundation for Quality management (EFQM). This study is a cross-sectional survey carried out using a 57-item questionnaire that focused on two objects: the hospital as a whole and its clinical departments. A total of 36 respondents participated in the study which comprised of senior level and mid-level managers of selected public and private hospitals. The hospitals have been selected using purposive sampling method. From this study, it was found that in each private and public hospitals higher management level perceived that they are in good position in enabler factors than that of middle level manager perceived. It is remarkable to note that private hospitals are toward positive trend in result criteria than that of public hospital. The overall score under enabler and result criteria across hospitals validates the relationship between enabler factor and result criteria envisioned in the EFQM model because it supports the fact that not better results can be achieved until input (enabler) factors are strong enough to support its result framework. In comparison to the standard EFQM Excellence Model value, it is surprisingly found that the weightage of all enabler factors and value of result criteria of public hospitals are significantly lower.