THE IMPACT OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ON HEALTHCARE SERVICE QUALITY IN JORDAN AND UAE: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Povzetek

In the healthcare industry, total quality management (TQM) has been widely recognized as a crucial approach to improving
service quality. As the gap between expected level of service and delivered medical service is expanding due to lack of
TQM. Hence, the mediating role of strategic management in between TQM and healthcare service quality will help hospitals
to implement TQM to deliver a high level of medical service for the patients. Yet, there is a lack of empirical evidence to
validate the mediating role of strategic management on this relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the
relationships between total quality management and healthcare service quality in hospitals. Quantitative methodology was
applied to test the hypothesized relationships. Questionnaire is data collection instrument. The population consists of
doctors, medical workers, administrative staff from different departments working in six hospitals in Jordan and UAE.
Simple random sampling technique was applied in the survey procedure. The results showed that TQM has a significant
effect on healthcare service quality in hospitals. In addition, strategic management partially mediates this relationship. As
a result, both TQM and strategic management create a synergy that drives healthcare organizations towards delivering
exceptional patient care and achieving sustainable success by providing high degree of healthcare service quality. The
outcome of this paper contributes to the theory of quality management in healthcare sector. Our study recommends that the
policymakers in hospitals to consider the findings of this paper in developing strategic future plans based on the principles
of TQM.