THE RELIABILITY OF EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL ASSESSMENT METHODS IN HEALTH CARE THE EXPERIENCES OF THE DUTCH AND EUROPEANS

S Introduction Organizations are constantly seeking ways to promote quality improvement and performance due to customer demand and changing business environment. The pressure to achieve this goal has resulted in the adoption Total Quality Management (TQM) approaches one of which is the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model (Oakland, 2003, pp. 130). EFQM Excellence Model is considered as a generic model for quality management which lends itself to all categories of organizations irrespective of size, structure, sector or level of maturity (EFQM, 1999). The weeks DQ seeks to explore the reliability of EFQM Excellence Model assessment methods as per the experience of Europeans and the Dutch health care institutions in its application to create a high performance institution. Health care improvement in Europe Assessing and maintaining quality of health care delivery in Europe is an age old tradition. Some of the quality assessment methods and models developed over the period include: Certification and accreditation procedures; Professional standards; Inspection procedures and Peer reviews (Nabitz et al., 2000, pp. 192) A European Commission (EC) funded project ExPeRT research project identified four quality approaches to health care delivery in Western Europe and these are: ISO approach; Health care specific accreditation; Visitatie (External peer review) and EFQM Excellence Model. The working group of the project concluded that EFQM Excellence Model was the most generic out the four identified approaches and that quality management is covered as an integral part of all professional and management functions occurring at all levels (Nabitz et al., 2000, pp. 191). According to Klazinga (1996: Cited in Nabitz et al., 2000, pp. 191) EFQM Excellence Model differs from the other approaches because it focuses on organizational development and continuous improvement.