Improving Operational Efficiency in Ghanaian Government Hospitals Using the Six Sigma Model

Abstract

In today's complex healthcare environment, a focus on quality is of particular importance. Hospitals are increasingly realizing the need to focus on improved efficiency as a means of eliminating poor quality of services, and as well, improve on their competitive position. Within any industry, organizations must strive to continuously improve on their efficiency while dealing with the complex and dynamic business environment. Reports have shown that efficiency levels in the healthcare delivery systems of many developing countries are relatively low (Ali, 2011). This assertion is seemingly true in the Ghanaian case (Kwakye, 2004). This research attempts to reduce the numerous quality problems existing in some Ghanaian hospitals in specific categories for better understanding and as well improve on these problems using the Six Sigma quality improvement model. Three hospitals were used in this study. Two sets of questionnaires were used to collect data from both patients and staff of these hospitals. The expectations and opinions of staff and patients were sought using eleven service quality determinants. An analysis covering 103 patients and 56 staff revealed that cleanliness, responsiveness and communication were the most considered quality characteristics by patients in these hospitals. Factor analyzing these responses further revealed eight categories of the problems identified by patients and four categories of the problems identified by staff. It was concluded that most of the prevalent quality problems in the hospitals were related to the functional aspects of the hospitals operations. The study revealed that the challenges facing the staff were centered on information flow, internal controls, financing and poor staffing issues. The Six Sigma DMAIC model is recommended to eliminate most of these functional problems to improve on quality in these hospitals. An illustration of the use of the DMAIC to solve the problem of crowding is given in chapter 6 of the thesis.