Overview of Focus on the User

"Why are we offering these services?"

Whether you are a nurse, a doctor, a laboratory specialist, or an administrator, your work is driven, directly or indirectly, by the needs and demands of the people who use your health services.

When you are managing for quality, both the managers and the team members use the problem-solving cycle to satisfy the needs of the user. Focusing on your users' needs can help you and the quality team identify quality problems, define solutions, and evaluate how well your solutions worked.

In addition, some tools are designed to involve the user in the problem-solving process. This ensures that services reflect the users' needs and promotes accountability of managers and staff.

Three types of techniques can be used to evaluate the users' needs, depending on the information source:

• Data Collection and Analysis use indirect sources of information to provide an approximation of the needs of the user, as identified from the viewpoint of staff. The source of the data can be health records, the official registry, the census, or any other information system. Some of the tools you will find detailed in this section are indicators, tables, and different types of graphs (e.g., bar graph, line graph).
• Direct Observation Techniques allow you to assess users' needs and any problems associated with the use of services. These techniques are usually not part of the information system, as they are designed for a specific purpose: to identify a problem, describe a situation, assess user satisfaction, etc. Some of the direct observation tools you will find detailed in this section include user surveys, checklists, focus groups, and moment of truth and client flow analyses.
• Consensus-Building Techniques are useful for identifying and addressing problems experienced by both users and staff. Some of the tools you will find detailed in this section are: brainstorming, prioritization matrix, focus groups, and negotiation techniques.