Quality managements and work environment in oral and maxillofacial surgery in Sweden

The aim of this study was to investigate if the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) clinics in Sweden actively work with quality development and if so, which systems they use. A further aim was to explore the opinion of the employees about quality work. Data were collected by way of a questionnaire with 67 questions, related to quality management at the clinic and to the content of healthy work. 22 clinics with 297 employees responded, 65% of the clinics and 86% of the employees. More than half of the respondents stated that they worked with a management system, but there was uncertainty as to the type of a quality system. Only at two clinics, all the respondents agreed on the system. This showed that one of the most important aspects in a quality system, i.e. to inform everyone, was unsatisfactory. The study showed that dental nurses and assistant nurses were more appreciative of quality as a tool for improvement than the maxillo-facial surgeons. There was no such difference concerning the importance of quality work. Dental nurses thought that the quality was more important for the working situation concerning the physical environment than did the maxillo-facial surgeons.