Service Operations Management Report: Quality Improvement Techniques

This report delves into service operations management within the context of healthcare, specifically analyzing techniques for quality improvement at North Middlesex Hospital. It explores four key strategies: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Benchmarking, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Kaizen. The report discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each technique, providing insights into how they can be implemented to enhance service quality and patient care. It examines the application of KPIs in tracking performance, the benchmarking process for identifying areas for improvement, the principles of TQM for continuous improvement, and the Kaizen philosophy for ongoing enhancement across all levels of the hospital. The report also addresses the challenges and benefits associated with each approach, offering a comprehensive overview of quality management in healthcare operations.

Service Operations Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Techniques used in quality processes...................................................................................3
1.2 Recommendations.................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Service operation management is a type of management which is done by a vast range of
research, that is majorly focuses on the management of operations and production of goods and
different services which includes technology management, quality and productivity management,
cross-functional co-ordination and product development (Zurich, 2017). The Care Quality
Commission (CQC), always make sure that all the hospitals which includes general hospitals,
dental hospitals, care homes and other care services in UK must give a risk-free, effectual and
high quality of services, and keep on encouraging the hospitals to improve the services. For
North Middlesex hospital, CQC has a benchmark for giving the ratings, those are: Outstanding,
good, require improvement and inadequate, and for Middlesex hospital, the rating is they 'require
improvement'. In this assignment, it is showing four different techniques for improvement in
quality, and what are the strength and weaknesses and how these can be used by the hospital in
improving their quality services.
TASK 1
1.1 Techniques used in quality processes
North Middlesex hospital is having four different techniques by which their quality
services can be improved, those techniques are: Key performance indicator (KPI),
Benchmarking, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Kaizen. The discussion will be on which
technique is best suited for the organization and how the quality can be improved.
1. Key Performance Indicator: These are defined as the measures the health
organizations are taking, which can track their progress and can define success in meeting the
organization's strategic goals. The main difference of KPIs and PIs (performance indicators) is
that KPIs are mainly focused on the strategic and long term goals of the organization. KPI is the
new tool or techniques which are used by the organizations to track and explain their process
which is directed towards their goal. There are very few sectors which are dependent on their
execution matrices, as much as the health sector. These health sectors may include the hospitals,
clinics and pharmacies (Yin, Zhu and Kaynak, 2015). The key performance indicators are highly
used now because they directly highlighted those parts of the performances which are very
integral and which are above all other parts, which will help the hospitals in achieving their

strategic goals. If the key performance indicators are very well designed, they can do various
things which will include:
▪ To check the state of current performance
▪ Set standards of performance and target for improvement
▪ Measure the improvements
▪ Compare the performance from other hospitals
▪ Benchmark the performance against rules
All these factors can be used to determine the performance with regards of quality and the
efficiency (Gonzalez-gil and Palacin, 2016). KPIs can be further used as the source of
information in hospitals which are having critical data to plan, add, revise or cut the program,
which will ensure that all the parts in the hospital are doing good in achieving the strategic goals
which are set by the hospital. There are some characteristics which are used in defining the good
performance indicators, these characteristics can be named as SMART, which means;
Specific- it means that does the indicator covering all the specific points like what the
hospital is doing and it should reflect the performance as well.
Measurement- this mean that does the data which is measures is reliable or not. The
collected data should be easily collected or this data is helping the hospital or not.
Achievable- Whatever are the goals of the organization, KPIs should be capable enough
to achieve that
Relevant- the data which is measured by the indicators should be relevant to the hospital
so that it can be utilized in further processes.
Time-bound- the information which is being measured by the KPIs should be time bound
means that it should get collected in the prescribed time limit.
The main strength of KPIs are the performance of the hospitals, patients care services and the
satisfaction of their family. KPIs will measure all sort of things which are related to the hospitals
and give the most relevant information which can be used in North Middlesex hospital to
improve the performance of the services they are offering and also the treatment will be more
efficient (Xie, Sun, and Cheung, 2016). KPIs have the power to set the benchmark of the
hospital, the staff can see the current performance and what are the things they should do so that
they will increase the performance as well as the quality of the services provided by the hospital.

2. Benchmarking: This can be described as a technique which is used by organizations
for the evaluation of their performance and after that comparing it with any other organization or
the whole industry (McCrory and et.al., 2015). There is a certain process through which we can
do the benchmarking, it includes the following steps:
▪ Selection of the particular process which needs improvement
▪ Find out the hospital which is best in that particular process
▪ Contact the firm of benchmarking, go there and learn their process and
study
▪ Analyse the faults in your process and also analyse the new findings
▪ Improve your process according to that
There are 3 types of benchmarking processes,
Internal Benchmarking- In this type of benchmarking, the hospitals or any organization
compare the internal performance of different departments which are at different locations. This
process is very easy in implementation, but the range is very less and limited.
Competitive Benchmarking- Here, hospitals compare their performance direct to the rival
hospitals, but the collection of data is very difficult here. It will give the health care organization
a great overview on the way of performance of you to your competitor.
Industry Benchmarking- The comparison here is to the leaders in the health care industry.
The collection of data is very difficult and tiresome, because the comparison is between the one
hospital to the best in the health care industry. The scope here is very large but if the
organization can introduce these techniques, it will bring variety of ideas to improve the
performance (Ferlie and et.al., 2016).
Benchmarking is having its own advantages and disadvantages, some advantages are;
 It brings the attention to the areas where special attention is required. By this,
benchmarking sets the base of improvements. It gives direction to the hospitals to apply
those changes so that can increase their performance.
 Sometimes the organizations compare their performance with their past performance,
which is not the correct measure. To succeed in the industry, they have to compare
themselves with the best in the business, and benchmarking does that and this will help in
improving their performance.

Though, the advantages are good and will help in the performance, but there are few
disadvantages also;
 Benchmarking only helps in identifying the areas which required improvement but it will
not contribute in solving the problems which are present right now. There are many steps
to improve the performance but the fist once can be Benchmarking.
 There are some factors which are micro and macro factors, benchmarking will not
consider these factors, it only compares the numbers.
In North Middlesex hospital, after applying the benchmarking, there are various benefits which
occurred, and that helps in improving the quality of the services offered by hospitals. Some
benefits are listed below:
 improvement in the quality of patient care
 increasing market opportunities
 focusing light on the strengths of the department
There are many ways, by which the bench marking is helping in the hospital industry. North
Middlesex hospital can use benchmarking as one of the way by which they can identify the
process of improving their current services and health care qualities.
3. Total Quality Management- TQM is a system, which is based on the continuous
improvement, that include all the workers from the top most management to the lowest
management in an industry. The main aim of TQM is to improve the customer services and
reduction in the waste (Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García and Marchante-Lara, 2014). TQM
is founded on three main principles: customer focus, continuous quality improvement and
teamwork.
Nowadays, all these healthcare organizations are facing many challenges, some leading
areas are: rise in the health service cost, advanced technology dependency, decrease the cost and
improve the quality of the treatments and lastly satisfying the needs of the patients. There is a
major need in the hospitals to maintain the services of the highest quality. These are the
challenges which forces the hospitals to implement a system, that can manage these in such a
way that hospitals will offer the high quality services, that is the main objective of the quality
management program. Total quality management can handle all these challenges and can solve
all the problems of the health care organizations.

The main key factors or principles on which TQM is focused is; customers requirements,
scientific approach, obsession with quality, team work, the commitment from the workers which
are long termed, education and training of the new employees etc. In North Middlesex hospital,
nurses are presenting more than 80% of the health workers, and the liability of the nursing staff
is the major restriction in the evaluation and implementation of the TQM programs. Nursing staff
has played a crucial role in the implementation and in the success of TQM.
Total quality management is the interface between the patients and the hospitals, because
the patients are the customers and hospital is the suppliers. There lies various processes. Their
core must be surrounded around the commitment to the quality. These are the main bases of
TQM, and they are supported by some important management factors which include people,
processes and the system of the hospital. Total quality management will include the customer's
perceptions (either internal or external). This will be easy to identify that who are the customers
and in the case of hospitals who are the patients, and what are their needs and expectations, how
the hospital can meet their requirements so that they will get the better treatment.
To apply the TQM, the hospitals should have all the required materials and the methods
by which they can implement the quality management program. First thing is the collection of
data, which can be done by the cross-sectional studies (Herzallah, Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez and
Munoz Rosas, 2014). Then after the data collection, this will represent some health sectors like
hospitals, clinics etc. all the data were collected from the nurses, who were working there. The
main aim of all these is to implement the total quality management program, which will handle
all the problems in the hospital and it will find out the best solution possible to deal with all those
problems.
TQM has crucial advantage in the improvement in the quality, the increase in the
productivity and more patient loyalty, but at the same time TQM is having some disadvantages
also, they are; firstly it demands in the change in the culture, it will require more planning time
and resources. The implementation and the quality cost is also expensive.
4. Kaizen- It was originated from japan, this means improvement. The word kai means
change and zan mean good, so it means changes done for the betterment. Kaizan means the
continuous improvement which is either in personal life or in professional life. It is a philosophy
which shows the importance of the improvement which is constant and continuous. This spirit of
the improvement will affect all the parts and level in hospitals, from the doctor to the owner, or

from the nursing staff to the patients. This technique will take all the aspects into consideration,
from the improvement of the qualities to the zero complaints at the end. These are the major
sought-after, so is obvious that most of the health care firms and hospitals are adopting this
technique in the improvement of their services (Singh, J. and Singh, H., 2016). If the hospitals
want to execute kaizan, then the management need to implement such type of systems which
makes it possible. These systems can identify the problems which are need to be solved. If any
health care firm want to adopt kaizan strategies, they need to follow five principles which are
also known as the '5S' (Gupta and Jain, 2014). This term is also derived from the Japanese
words, that means
Sort- Sort the data and separate which is not needed. So it removes all the obstacles, and
makes the work a lot easier, so that it will prevent the unwanted data to enter.
Set in order- Arrange all the data in such a way that they are ready to use, that will make
the workflow very simple and easy.
Shine- The workplace should be neat and clean, because this will make the patient feel
more relaxed and they will feel the hospital like their home.
Standardise- Maintaining a very high standard of the qualities and the services which are
offered by the hospital. It is must that the staff should ensure all the services are having certain
standard.
Sustain- the hospital should follow all the rules set by the industry, and now and then
regular audits should be made just to check that, the hospital remain neat and clean.
Kaizan can be very helpful to the health care industry, because it encourages the development of
team work, which will lead to the improved cooperation in the workplace. North Middlesex
hospital uses Kaizan to achieve good results in the health care industry, so that they can serve the
good quality services to the patients and treat them in a better way.
Despite all the benefits Kaizan is offering, there are some limitations as well. If the
organization chooses to implement Kaizan into the existing system, then later on it will be
extremely difficult in returning to the previous one. Another issue is that, the initial changes
might be good and full of excitement, but later on it will be very challenging to implement the
changes. Though, it is very difficult to implement Kaizan in the existing system, but once the
organization have implemented it, then it will start to show the benefits and it will change the
whole system of the health care organization.

1.2 Recommendations
From the CQC report, it was found that certain areas of the hospital like safety,
effectiveness, caring, responsiveness are all need improvements. The main key collection of the
CQC report were as follows;
 The emergency department, which is used for the emergency cases, was not meeting the
time standards, which is 15 min, as all the patients were reaching late to the emergency
department.
 The patients record have not been completed, as there were many places where the
information was not filled.
 The safety tools and fire extinguisher are not enough and also not in good condition.
 The risk register was not suggesting that how the risks were handled.
These are some findings from the CQC report, and the positives were the relation between the
patients and the staff, which is very positive. The care and treatment of the patients were of the
highest level and that met the standards set by the national best practice guidance.
All the techniques used to improve the quality and performance was good, and by
implementing any one of these techniques can certainly raise the bar of the performance. Key
performance indicator was used earlier, when there was less pressure on the staff and the
customers were easy going, though this is the good technique to improve the quality but certainly
not the best one as its focus was to set the long term plan, but very rarely it can deal with the
immediate situation. The second one is the benchmarking process, by comparing from various
other hospitals this can set the bench mark of North Middlesex hospital, but the thing is that if
the patients are not feeling well, then it will take time to adapt to other situations.
Kaizan is the technique used in Japan more often, but in UK it is very difficult to
implement (Oropesa and et.al., 2016). Though, there will be continuous improvement in the
performance but it is very difficult to implement kaizan, as all the staff members will not be able
to adapt the changes, and once the implementation was done, then again it will be extremely
difficult to go back to the previous process. Another thing with kaizan is that firstly it will be
very easy to adapt and implement but later on it will be very hard to apply the changes. As
suggested earlier, Total Quality Management (TQM), is the best technique which can be used by
the hospital to improve the performance. Although TQM is more expensive than other
techniques and it will take more time to implement but it is the best technique because once it is

implemented, it will show sudden changes in the processes, the improvement will be continuous
and constant. So this will not lead to drop down the quality. The main aim of TQM is to serve the
patient with the best quality of the services, and TQM is doing that, and that too in continuous
way, without compromising with the quality. Total quality management process will increase the
productivity and at the same time it will increase the loyalty of the patients. North Middlesex
hospital must have the TQM technique so that they will manage all the things and will overcome
the fault which was shown in the CQC report.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it has been concluded that service operation management is very
necessary in any organization. There are various techniques which can be used in those
organizations to improve their quality of services and the performance. In health care industry,
these techniques are very helpful in serving the patient and treat them in more efficient way. All
the hospitals are using these techniques to improve their performance but North Middlesex
hospital is using only TQM services, which is the best one. Though, it is costly but it is one time
investment with constant and continuous output and increase in performance. It is concluded that
these techniques are very effective and can easily increase the performance of any organization.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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organisation: a case study. International Journal of Lean Enterprise Research. 1(1).
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Herzallah, A.M., Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L. and Munoz Rosas, J.F., 2014. Total quality
management practices, competitive strategies and financial performance: the case of the
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