Quality management of the periodic medical examination at a university hospital, from the workers’ perspective

INTRODUCTION: Implementation of quality assessment methodologies at healthcare services enables the results achieved to be monitored in terms of established objectives and standards of care delivery. OBJECTIVES: To assess the quality of the processes involved in provision of periodic medical examinations at a University Hospital, from the workers’ perspective. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study using questionnaires to conduct quality assessment of the periodic medical examination processes, including Net Promoter Score satisfaction questions. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using SPSS version 18. Data on categorical variables are expressed as absolute frequencies and data on continuous variables as means and standard deviations. Chi-square tests and analysis of variance were used to identify associations. A significance level of 0.05 was adopted to determine the statistical relevance of findings. RESULTS: A total of 381 respondents with a mean age of 45.25 years were included, 66% of whom were female. There was a statistically significant (p < 0.001) association between duration of consultations and the number of items assessed in the periodic medical examination. In general, the findings from application of the Net Promoter Score for self-scheduling (45%) and service at reception (42%) indicate a need for process improvement, whereas clinical care (50%) rated as a quality process. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified a set of information that can be used to describe, analyze, and improve the care delivered by the institution’s occupational health service and to identify opportunities for improvement of periodic medical examination processes.