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Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Small and big quality in health care
1Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to clarify healthcare quality's ontological and epistemological foundations; and examine how these lead to different measurements and technologies.
Design/Methodology/Approach:
Conceptual analysis.
Findings:
Small quality denotes conformance to ex ante requirements. Big quality includes product and service design, based on customer requirements and expectations. Healthcare quality can be divided into three areas: clinical decision making; patient safety; and patient experience, each with distinct measurement and improvement technologies.
Practical Implications:
The conceptual model is expected to bring clarity to constructing specific definitions, measures, objectives and technologies for improving healthcare.
Originality/Value:
This paper claims that before healthcare quality can be defined, measured and integrated into systems, it needs to be clearly separated into ontologically and epistemologically different parts.
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