A consensus support model based on linguistic information for the initial-self assessment of the EFQM in health care organizations

• Published in: Expert systems with applications Vol. 40; no. 8; pp. 2792 - 2798
• Main Authors: Moreno-Rodrı´guez, J.M., Cabrerizo, F.J., Pérez, I.J., Martı´nez, M.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 15.06.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Consensus; Customers; Economics; EFQM; Exact sciences and technology; Expert systems; Firm modelling; Fuzzy; Fuzzy logic; General aspects; Global marketing; Group decision making; Health care; Health care organizations; Linguistic modeling; Linguistics; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Organizations; Software; Speech and sound recognition and synthesis. Linguistics; Group decision making; Linguistic modeling; EFQM; Consensus; Health care organizations; Questionnaire; Self evaluation; Competitiveness; Quantization; Distributed system; Linguistic model; Modeling; Total quality; Social decision; Fuzzy logic; Quality assurance; Self organization; Treatment; Linguistics; Firm management; Quantifier; Service quality; Public health; Quality management
• ISSN: 0957-4174; 1873-6793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.11.011

► Consensus model for the initial self-assessment of the EQFM Excellende Model. ► Linguistic information is used in the EFQM instead of numerical values. ► Linguistic consensus degrees and linguistic distances are used to obtain consensus. The improvement of the quality of the services is one of the primary sources of competitive advantage in health care organizations. As customers typically search for higher quality of care when choosing treatments, health plans and providers, the health care organizations strive to improve the quality of care and patient safety and satisfaction, as primary goals, with the resources that are available. To do so, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model for self-assessment has been used by the health care organizations to improve their services and their competitiveness in the global market. However, when the health care organizations address self-assessment processes for the first time, the initial effort needed presents many difficulties. The aim of this paper is to offer a consensus support model based on linguistic information to conduct the self-assessment of the EFQM Excellence Model when questionnaires are used. It is based on the use of linguistic information to provide the individuals’ opinions, which facilitates the individual responses, and on the use of fuzzy majority, represented by means of a linguistic quantifier, to compute the measures guiding the consensus reaching process.