Health-care Service Quality Improvement Using Walk-through Audit

Purpose: Methods for increasing health-care service quality are considered for a women-centered hospital located on a local city. A walk-through audit is applied to uncover areas for improvement. Methods: A survey questionnaire with 25 questions is constructed based on a service blueprint for a walk-through audit, and a survey is conducted both to patients and service providers to assess a health-care service quality. Frequency analysis, statistical tests and customer-provider analysis are used to analyze sur- veyed data. Results: According to customer-provider analysis, 6 attributes belong to 'problem unawareness' zone in which they are rated high by service providers but low by patients, and another 6 attributes belong to 'problem awareness'zone in which they are rated low by both groups. These attributes are considered to be improved with priority. Conclusion: Both patient group and service provider group have lots of different perceptions on most attributes that are examined, and the hospital to be studied is, in general, competitive in technical quality and less competitive in functional quality.