Customer focus in breast cancer screening services.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how a generic value chain and customer focused system as demonstrated by the Scottish and Irish breast screening programmes can be used to provide a high quality health service.


METHODS
Literature relevant to aligning the entire operating model--the companies' culture, business processes, management systems to serve one value discipline, i.e. customer intimacy, is reviewed and considered in the context of the NHS Scottish Breast Screening Programme in Edinburgh and BreastCheck--the National Breast Screening Programme in Ireland.


RESULTS
This paper demonstrates how an emphasis on customer focus and operational excellence, as used in other service industries, can help to provide a better health service. It uses the Scottish and Irish breast screening programmes as illustrative examples. The paper applies the key requirements in the delivery of a quality service including an understanding of the characteristics of a service industry, the management of discontinuities involved in its delivery and the environment in which it operates.


CONCLUSIONS
System failure is commonly the cause of quality failure in the health system. Breast screening programmes are designed to prevent such a failure. This paper promotes and describes the use of the generic value chain by using the knowledge gained in delivering a mammography-screening programme.
Buttimer
Andreas
A
Campbell River General Hospital, Vancouver Island, Canada. andreas@crcable.net
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001955:British Columbia; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010348:Patient Care Team; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012606:Scotland