Study On The Evaluation Indicator System Of Hospital Medical Services Brand

ObjectiveThe definition of hospital medical services brand was identified based on theoretical analysis of document materials about hospital services brand evaluation. PDCA Circle Theory was adopted to analyze the construction process of hospital medical services brand. The evaluation indicator system of hospital medical services brand suitable to China was constructed through Fuzzy Comprehensive Method. Then, empirical research of the indicator system was carried out to analyze the current status of medical services brand in sampled hospitals so as to come up with the measures and suggestions for hospital medical services brand construction.Methods1. Literature analysis. Literatures about services brand were collected to analyze the related concept about hospital medical services brand and the current status of medical services brand and explore the construction process of hospital medical services brand. And evaluation indicators were initially selected.2. Delphi Method. A consultation group consisted of experts in the field of hospital management, healthcare administration and so on were formed to carry out two rounds of expert consultation in order to construct the evaluation indicator system of hospital medical services brand.3. Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method. Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation model was constructed according experts'score to identify the weight distribution of the evaluation indicator system of hospital medical services brand.4. Field survey. According to the evaluation indicator system of hospital medical services brand, hospital investigation table, medical personnel's questionnaire and patients'questionnaire were formed to carry out field survey in 6 hospitals of Wuhan and Xiangyang. Totally 217 medical personnel and patients were investigated.5. Individual in-depth interview. Individual interview was carried out among hospital administrative personnel, medical personnel and patients to understand the current status of hospital medical services brand and their perceptions about services brand construction.6. Statistic analysis. Descriptive analysis, nonparametric analysis and other methods were adopted to analyze the data.Results1. According to PDCA Circle Theory, the construction process of hospital medical services brand were divided into 8 steps: services brand investigation, problems and influencing factors analysis, identification of key influencing factors, design of services brand construction plan, service delivery and brand promotion, effect evaluation of services brand construction, standardization of effective measures and analysis of non-addressed problems for continuous improvement.2. The evaluation indicator system of hospital medical services brand was divided into three levels. Three primary indicators were identified as medical services brand management, medical services delivery capacity and consumers'evaluation; ten secondary indicators were identified including element management of medical services brand, system construction of services brand, services brand promotion and so on; 44 tertiary indicators were identified such as hospital logo, medical service image, medical service slogan, medical service brand location and so on.3. The effective respondent rate of the two rounds of expert consultation were 76.5% and 80.0% respectively. The authoritative coefficients of the three primary indicators were 0.7250, 0.7583, 0.7333 respectively. In the first round, the Kendall coefficients of the three primary indicators were 0.2176, 0.2312, 0.2865 (P<0.05) respectively. And in the second round, the three coefficient were 0.2869, 0.3265, 0.4103 (P<0.05) respectively. The coefficients of the second round was higher than those of the first round, so the result was acceptable. of the three primary indicators were 0.3096, 0.3469, 0.3435 respectively. The weight of medical service delivery capacity was almost equal to that of consumers'evaluation, while the weight of medical service brand management was comparatively lower. And among the ten secondary indicators, 5 key indicators were identified according to their weight, namely, system construction of services brand, services brand promotion, medical service process, patients'satisfaction and handle of patients'complaints. 5. The scores of the 6 sampled hospitals A, B, C, D, E and F were 0.8668, 0.8055, 0.8173, 0.8249, 0.6594, 0.6772 repectively. Hospital A had the best services brand among the 6 hosptials and the worst was Hospital E. Hospital D, a secondary hospital, ranked second among the 6 hosptials, the services brand of which was better than the other two tertiaty hospitals----Hospital B and C.Conclusions1. Some problems were found through empirical research of the indicator system: (1) Medical personnel's awareness of services brand was not strong enough. The construction of hospital services brand was seldom put into actual implementation; (2) There were many problems existing in the medical service process, which influenced patients'satisfaction; (3) Medical personnel did not show much respect of their patients, mainly reflected by talking aobut patients'privacy; (4) Appointed registration was not fully implemented in hospitals. Individualized medical service developed slowly; (5) The service standard of medical personnel had not been established and the related training was not powerful enough.2. Some suggestions for the improvement hospital medical service brand were proposed: (1) The awareness of services brand should be put into mind; (2) Services brand should be reasonably located in line the hospital's situation; (3) The promotion of services brand should be reinforced with the assistance of modern media; (4) The medical service process should be restructured to make convenience for the patients; (5) Services innovation should be strengthened to create different services brands.