effects of total quality management on customer satisfaction in the health service industry

Abstract

Service quality and customer satisfaction are very important concepts that hospitals must understand in order to remain competitive in business. This study aimed to determine effects of total quality management on customer satisfaction in the health service industry: A case study of Arusha Lutheran medical Centre and mount Meru hospital. The main purpose was to determine the effectiveness of TQM practices, determine the relationship between TQM implementation and customer satisfaction and determine factors that hinder implementation of TQM practices in ALMC and Mount Meru Hospital. A cross-sectional study design was conducted at ALMC and Mount Meru Hospital. In order to determine patients’ level of satisfaction with the health care services received from the hospitals a Servqual questionnaire was developed. Another questionnaire was developed to assess the level of effectiveness of Total Quality Management in the said hospitals. The sampling techniques used were probability sampling and Non- probability sampling which were used to select a sample 206 patients and 46 employees. Data collected was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 for windows and Microsoft excel. From the analysis carried out, it was found out that, the distribution of efficient practice of TQM shows a more than average score for both hospitals. Where ALMC has a score of 3.608 mean and Mount Meru a score of 3.664.This shows that there is effectiveness implementation of the three TQM dimensions on both hospitals. Factors hindering for both Hospitals were poor Management structure and Commitment, Lack of experts of TQM, Poor understanding and insufficient knowledge of TQM and Resistance to Change from employees. The findings revealed that there is positive relationship between TQM implementation and customer satisfaction. It is recommended that a more studies should be carried out, which covers the Single departments of this hospitals to establish the effectiveness of the implementation of TQM in the health care, while using a representative sampling technique.