IHI.org - A resource from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
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Focus on the Product or Service:
Differentiate Product Using Quality Dimensions

We improve quality as we improve the matching between products and services and the need they are designed to satisfy. The degree of matching is determined using the definition of quality. Customer research can provide an understanding of how customers define quality and how this definition differs among different groups of customers. The dimensions of quality provide a model to help categorize various measures of quality. The measures of quality for a specific product do not have to contain all of the dimensions. Two completely different products can be considered "high quality" because different dimensions of quality are considered important for the two products. To compete on quality, an organization must determine what dimensions are important to the group of customers (segment of the market) on which the organization is focusing.




Examples of Tests of this Change

There is not one correct culture for all health care organizations to adopt in order to recruit or retain talented employees. An organization should capitalize on the strengths it already has in place. An organization should concentrate on building a culture that matches its history and strengths, such as superior service, niche patient care, full career system, family focused, etc. One hospital focused on its unique expertise in hernia repair and its recovery philosophy, which is to get the patient ambulatory as soon after surgery as possible, to differentiate it among other leading hospitals. The hospital capitalized on this skill by specializing only in this type of surgery and is now very well known throughout the world.