| dc.description.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. | en_US |
