Total quality management practices and operational performance of private hospitals in Nairobi county

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of total quality management practices on the operational performance of private health sector in Kenya. The health service sector in the entire world is getting competitive every day due to the changes in technology and quality issues. In order to be successful in quality service delivery total quality management (TQM) practices ought to be the integral part of any health organization’s strategic management. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select private hospitals within Nairobi City County where a sample size of 139 respondents was targeted. The study relied on the data collected through a structured questionnaire to meet the objectives of the study using five point Likert scale. The questionnaire questions focused on the total quality management practices implementation and operational performance of the Private health sector with reference to the selected private hospitals with in Nairobi City County. The questions were both open ended and closed ended. The process of data analysis involved data clean up and explanation and responses in the questionnaires which was tabulated coded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. The results were presented in form of frequency table, mean and standard deviation. The study found out that total quality management practices improves operational efficiency and performance thus reduced operation cost, which results in increased hospital profitability, enhanced sales, increased hospital competitiveness and increased market share. The study established that the five selected specific TQM Practices influences leadership practices affect the operational performance of hospitals. That the implementation of total quality management has facilitated hospital leadership to provide the necessary resources, providing conducive working environment, to employee involvement in quality management process, influenced the decision of selecting qualified suppliers and certifying suppliers for quality material, creates strategies, plans and systems for achieving superior quality in the institution and that has inspired staff and management in effective and efficient use of the resources and efforts of the institution towards quality excellence. The study concluded that the implementation of quality management practices has increased hospital profitability, enhanced sales, increased hospital competitiveness and resulted in acquisition of bigger market share, enhanced service delivery in the hospitals, ensured effective waste reduction in operations, improved operation efficiency thus reducing operation costs and increased customer retention as a result of customer satisfaction. The study recommends that there is need for the hospital management to implement organizational culture change for the successful implementation of total quality management so as to enhance the organization’s strategy of continuous improvement, open communication and cooperation throughout the organization.