Quality-Oriented Climate and Service Quality Among Healthcare Providers: Evidence From a Rehabilitation Center in Italy

The importance of quality in service provision is widely recognized in health service research. However, a limited number of studies have investigated antecedents of quality in healthcare service provision. This article tries to shed further light on this under-researched field. Specifically, the aim of this study is to verify the relationship between the quality-oriented climate and service quality as perceived by employees. The study was conducted in a private non-profit Rehabilitation Centre in Italy using a questionnaire administered to all healthcare workers. The questions focused on perceptions of quality-oriented climate (priorization of quality care, social cooperation, and exchange), four different connotations of the quality in healthcare provision (provision of high quality service, adequacy of time spent with patients, freedom in clinical decisions, and continuing relationships with patients), as well as on respondents’  background. Of the 248 healthcare workers, 183 completed the questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to study the relationship between quality-oriented climate and outcome variables (quality in healthcare provision). The results suggest that a quality-oriented climate does explain service quality in Healthcare settings: When an organization has implemented a quality-oriented climate, the service care provided by healthcare workers can determine an increase for three of the four investigated aspects of quality service provision (quality of care, freedom to make clinical decisions to meet  patients’  needs, and continuing relationships with patients). The  paper demonstrates that the offer of quality services involves in a different way the various healthcare professionals and/or management staff. This research provides interesting findings for healthcare manager in Health Service settings regarding the management of a quality-oriented process of service provision.