The application of Kano model in the healthcare industry: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The critical determinant of success in any industry is the customers’ perception of the products and services offered. Hence, organisations focus on customer satisfaction for service quality improvement, business growth, and sustainability. Although the Kano model has been used widely to elicit customers’ service quality requirements and improve customer satisfaction, the implementation of the Kano model in healthcare remains in its infancy and there is ambiguity in customer needs related to healthcare services. This paper provides a review of the literature on implementing the Kano model in healthcare through a systematic search of databases related to service quality improvement in the healthcare sector. The objective of this paper is to detail how the Kano model can be employed and integrated with other quality methodologies to obtain customer requirements and improve healthcare service quality. It is evident from this systematic review that customer needs and preferences vary with the type of care acquired and services offered by healthcare providers. The findings allow healthcare providers to comprehend customer needs related to service quality and develop sustainable improvement strategies. This article intends to propel further research in service quality improvement of the healthcare industry.

Keywords:

• customer satisfaction
• healthcare
• Kano model
• patient satisfaction
• service quality
• systematic literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Tejaswi Materla http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7501-850X

Elizabeth A. Cudney http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3990-0474