Service Quality Improvement Through Integrated Demand Management In The Ethiopian Healthcare Sector

Quality is a basic differentiator for manufactured products and for services provided. ThernService sector constitutes a considerable part of the country’s economy. Besides its economicrncontribution, the service sector such as the healthcare is an inseparable part of human life. Thernhealthcare service needs to be accomplished with great care and speed to save lives and promoternhappiness by eradicating diseases and alleviating human suffering. rnEfforts have been exerted by the Government, to improve the quality of life in the countryrnthrough the expansion and development of manufacturing industries. Compared tornmanufacturing industries, the quality of service sectors has not advanced adequately. This isrnpartly due to the fast rate of population growth. Much is expected to improve the service qualityrnwith the resources available. The complexity and wide coverage of the service sector do notrnmake improvements to be achieved easily. Among the efforts worthy of mentioning to improvernservice quality in the sector is the implementation of Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)rnand the Kaizen philosophy and principles especially in hospitals, though the results gained hasrnnot yet reached the standard expected. Owing to this, complaints in the health sector still persistrnand it is obligatory to find ways and means to deal with them. Therefore, the main objective ofrnthis research is to assess the existing problems by undertaking an in-depth study of differentrnhealthcare departments. To this end, it is necessary to develop an integrated demandrnmanagement model. It is believed that this will be helpful in managing the demand within thernsector and achieve an integrated method of channeling healthy delivery services in an efficientrnand effective manner. rnrnTo realize the dissertation’s objectives, an in-depth literature review was conducted. Thernconcepts and terms related to quality, supply chain and demand management in healthcare asrnwell as different models and options were investigated with the help of mathematical andrnstatistical tools to study quality improvement approaches. As a result, existing gaps werernidentified and further examined by using a combination of primary and secondary sources,qualitative and quantitative data and with information gathered from focus group discussions torndeal with improvements and approaches for the identified problems. By using the data obtained,rna Fuzzy-AHP approach was selected and the necessary measures were prioritized for the purposernof implementation. The prioritization was also supported by sensitivity analysis. As a result,rnboth emergency and referral cases in relation to inpatient and out-patient needs, as well asrnpharmaceutical distribution were examined in different sections. rnrnIn the assessment of the existing working situation in the selected areas of the sector, waitingrntime data were analyzed and the working procedures were also investigated. Core problemsrnwere selected and the patient flow of the existing system was studied with the help of systemrndynamics stock-flow diagrams. Pharmaceutical distribution networks were re-designed tornminimize the delay of services.rnrnFinally, an integrated demand management model which is aimed at improving the servicernquality in the sector to enhance the degree of responsiveness to patients’ needs that would dornaway with delays was developed by using system dynamics and consultation of experts for thernchoice of parameters for application. The workability of the new model is theoretically validatedrnand supported by experts in the area.

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