An Analysis of hospital characteristics on lean and service quality

Purpose The purpose of this research is to explore the differences across hospital characteristics (i.e. lean maturity, hospital size, hospital type and ISO 9001) on lean expectation, lean performance, service quality expectation and service quality performance. Design/methodology/approach The survey instruments were developed from an extensive literature review, validated by experts and tested by statistical techniques. Data was collected from the perspective of care providers in 220 outpatient departments of Thai hospitals with multiple respondents to improve reliability of data. Analysis of variance and independent sample t test were applied for analysis. Findings It was found that there are significant differences across lean maturity and hospital size on overall lean expectation and overall lean performance, and across ISO 9001 on overall service quality performance. Overall, service quality expectation and performance have higher mean scores than overall lean expectation and performance. Originality/value To the best of author's knowledge, this is one of the first studies to present insights into the links between Thai hospital characteristics, expected lean and service quality and performance from the care provider viewpoint. Findings form this study can be used to improve individual hospitals or develop healthcare system at national level.