Browsing by Author "Shewit, Woldegebriel"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Service Quality Improvement through Integrated Demand Management in the Ethiopian Healthcare Sector
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-01) Shewit, Woldegebriel; Daniel, Kitaw (Prof.); Carlo, Rafele (Prof.) Co-Supervisor
    Quality is a basic differentiator for manufactured products and for services provided. The Service sector constitutes a considerable part of the country’s economy. Besides its economic contribution, the service sector such as the healthcare is an inseparable part of human life. The healthcare service needs to be accomplished with great care and speed to save lives and promote happiness by eradicating diseases and alleviating human suffering. Efforts have been exerted by the Government, to improve the quality of life in the country through the expansion and development of manufacturing industries. Compared to manufacturing industries, the quality of service sectors has not advanced adequately. This is partly due to the fast rate of population growth. Much is expected to improve the service quality with the resources available. The complexity and wide coverage of the service sector do not make improvements to be achieved easily. Among the efforts worthy of mentioning to improve service quality in the sector is the implementation of Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) and the Kaizen philosophy and principles especially in hospitals, though the results gained has not yet reached the standard expected. Owing to this, complaints in the health sector still persist and it is obligatory to find ways and means to deal with them. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to assess the existing problems by undertaking an in-depth study of different healthcare departments. To this end, it is necessary to develop an integrated demand management model. It is believed that this will be helpful in managing the demand within the sector and achieve an integrated method of channeling healthy delivery services in an efficient and effective manner. To realize the dissertation’s objectives, an in-depth literature review was conducted. The concepts and terms related to quality, supply chain and demand management in healthcare as well as different models and options were investigated with the help of mathematical and statistical tools to study quality improvement approaches. As a result, existing gaps were identified and further examined by using a combination of primary and secondary sources,qualitative and quantitative data and with information gathered from focus group discussions to deal with improvements and approaches for the identified problems. By using the data obtained, a Fuzzy-AHP approach was selected and the necessary measures were prioritized for the purpose of implementation. The prioritization was also supported by sensitivity analysis. As a result, both emergency and referral cases in relation to inpatient and out-patient needs, as well as pharmaceutical distribution were examined in different sections. In the assessment of the existing working situation in the selected areas of the sector, waiting time data were analyzed and the working procedures were also investigated. Core problems were selected and the patient flow of the existing system was studied with the help of system dynamics stock-flow diagrams. Pharmaceutical distribution networks were re-designed to minimize the delay of services. Finally, an integrated demand management model which is aimed at improving the service quality in the sector to enhance the degree of responsiveness to patients’ needs that would do away with delays was developed by using system dynamics and consultation of experts for the choice of parameters for application. The workability of the new model is theoretically validated and supported by experts in the area.