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Data have a critical role in supporting service improvement and this is particularly the case for service improvement to reduce waiting times. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the barriers managers face in accessing and using data effectively for 18 weeks and then describes how a service improvement tool developed by the NHS Institute can help to overcome these.

A review of the core function of data to support service improvement processes and the development of a national tool to support the transformation of access with the National Health Service in England.

The review of the core function of data identified a range of barriers: access to data for service improvement; the appropriate use of data to analyse the dynamics of variation and therefore for decision making; and the capacity and capability to use data. The size and immediacy of the 18‐week challenge means that a national solution needs to focus on being practical and overcoming some of these barriers.

A perspective of the reality of using data for service improvement and using it to transform access to health services.

The paper aims to provide a better understanding of how cognitive processes limit service improvements in typical product manufacturing companies.

Case studies are the main tool for theory development. All investigated manufacturing companies have been seeking possibilities to enhance their profitability through services, because their products were mainly in the maturity stage with decreasing margins and profitability.

The objective was to show how companies can overcome the typical “cultural” habits and cognitive processes by offering some guidelines to managers seeking to establish sustainable service improvement programs.

The remarks are limited to product manufacturing firms.

The key managerial implication is a method to overcome cognitive processes, which limit service improvements.

The paper establishes that cognitive processes form several feedback structures that all play a critical role in determining the success of service improvements.

In the recent climate of consumerism and consumer focused care, health and social care needs to be more responsive than ever before. Consumer needs and preferences can be elicited with accepted validity and reliability only by strict methodological control, customerisation of the questionnaire and skilled interpretation. To construct, conduct, interpret and implement improved service provision, requires a trained work force and infrastructure. This article aims to appraise various aspects of consumer surveys and to assess their value as effective service improvement tools.

The customer is the sole reason organisations exist. Consumer surveys are used worldwide as service and quality of care improvement tools by all types of service providers including health service providers. The article critically appraises the value of consumer surveys as service improvement tools in health services tool and its future applications.

No one type of survey is the best or ideal. The key is the selection of the correct survey methodology, unique and customised for the particular type/aspect of care being evaluated. The method used should reflect the importance of the information required.

Methodological rigor is essential for the effectiveness of consumer surveys as service improvement tools. Unfortunately so far there is no universal consensus on superiority of one particular methodology over another or any benefit of one specific methodology in a given situation. More training and some dedicated resource allocation is required to develop consumer surveys. More research is needed to develop specific survey methodology and evaluation techniques for improved validity and reliability of the surveys as service improvement tools. Measurement of consumer preferences/priorities, evaluation of services and key performance scores, is not easy.

Consumer surveys seem impressive tools as they provide the customer a voice for change or modification. However, from a scientific point‐of‐view their credibility in service improvement in terms of reproducibility, reliability and validity, has remained debatable.

This artcile is a critical appraisal of the value of consumer surveys as a service improvement tool in health services – a lesson which needs to be learnt.

This paper aims to explore patient to care provider reverse exchanges to improve the care processes and service supply chain using an online feedback platform. This paper demonstrates how a better understanding of timely and unsolicited feedback (“voice of the patient as a customer”) stimulates local interventions to improve service delivery and enact the essential characteristics of highly reliable organisations (HRO).

A realist approach involving an exploratory hospital case study using user feedback from an IT patient feedback platform. The methodology included interviews, secondary data and access to thousands of patient feedback narratives.

The findings show that a systems approach to the supply chain, using real-time feedback to enact process improvement is beneficial and a fruitful source of innovation for professional services staff. The setting of the improvement focusses on a true “voice of the customer” rather than attempting to improve arbitrarily internal process efficiency has major benefits for staff and their engagement with the right interventions to support higher performance.

The findings show major positive benefits for the adaptation and constant reflection of staff on the service provided to patients. The approach provides a means of reflecting as to whether the current supply chain and service provision are fit for purpose, as well as reliable, efficient and of value to the consumer.

This study is one of a few that adopt the consumer orientation needed to fully exploit the concepts of patient-centric improvement by including dynamic feedback in the supply chain and systems approach to care.

The purpose of this paper is to examine questions concerning service improvement and the possible contribution of action learning as a means of bringing about both personal and organisational development. A second companion paper deals with the facilitation issues in this context (submitted to Leadership in Health Services, December 2007).

This research reports on the experiences of participants on a leadership development programme, who were seeking to effect service improvements in their professional domains. Data were collected via telephone interviews, focus groups, action learning sets and a world cafe event.

The paper concludes that the definition of “service improvement” is multiple and problematic. It concludes that action learning and service improvement can be natural partners but only if the action learning design is crafted to the specifics of the context.

This case study was developed at a time of great turmoil in the NHS. The findings may be taken as indicative and instructive rather than reproducible.

NHS service improvements are failing to keep pace with targets due to an over‐reliance on centrally initiated programmes and a deficit in local efforts. NHS and other managers will find this paper useful to help them bring about service improvements at local level.

As far as the authors know there are no other published accounts of service improvement initiatives developed via action learning.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the design and initial outcomes of a leadership and service improvement program for junior medical staff.

This paper describes the rationale, initial set-up, structure, program outcomes and future directions of the Medical Service Improvement Program for junior doctors. This program is a recent initiative of the Western Australian public healthcare system.

The Medical Service Improvement Program illustrates a successful approach to developing junior doctors to lead improvements in health service delivery. The program has resulted in tangible personal outcomes for participants, in addition to important organisational outcomes.

This paper provides an evidence-based structured approach to developing the leadership abilities of junior medical staff. It provides practical information on the design of the leadership program that aligns the participant learning outcomes to postgraduate medical competencies. The program has demonstrated clear service outcomes, confirming that junior medical staff is both capable and committed to leading service improvement and reform.

This paper provides clear evidence for the benefits of providing dedicated non-clinical time for junior medical staff to lead quality and improvement initiatives. This case study will assist hospital administrators, postgraduate education units and those involved in designing and administering clinical leadership development programs.

The motel industry in Taiwan is a highly competitive industry, which requires considerable investment and demands innovative services. This paper aims to identify the competitive qualities that urgently require improvement to enhance the service quality of motels using the two-phase method of importance-performance and gap analysis (IPGA) and the Kano model, and develops specific improvement strategies.

By questionnaire survey, this study collects 562 valid questionnaires from motels in Taipei City. The IPGA and Kano model are used to identify the service attributes of market competitiveness that urgently require improvement.

The results show there are 14 attributes that should be urgently improved, of which four are the attractive qualities of market competitiveness (competitive qualities). This study develops ten improvement strategies, as based on the four competitive qualities, for the reference of the motel industry.

The results can identify the competitive qualities that require urgent improvement to address the development of improvement strategies for motels. The managers of motels can refer to the ten improvement strategies to create excellent and competitive motel services.

The results combine “customers’ needs” with “the competitive meanings of quality attributes in the market” under limited resources, to upgrade motel service quality, customers’ willingness to purchase and motel competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it sets the context for the special issue by considering conceptions of patients and their roles in service delivery and improvement. Second, it introduces the contributions to the special issue, and identifies thematic resonance.

The paper utilises a literature synthesis and thematic analysis of the special issue submissions. These emanated from the Ninth International Organisational Behaviour in Healthcare Conference, hosted by Copenhagen Business School on behalf of the Learned Society for Studies in Organizing Healthcare.

The articles evidence a range of perspectives on patients’ roles in healthcare. These range from their being subject to, a mobilising focus for, and active participants in service delivery and improvement. Building upon the potential patient roles identified, this editorial develops five “ideal type” patient positions in healthcare delivery and improvement. These recognise that patients’ engagement with health care services is influenced both by personal characteristics and circumstances, which affect patients’ openness to engaging with health services, as well as the opportunities afforded to patients to engage, by organisations and their employees.

The paper explores the relationally embedded nature of patient involvement in healthcare, inherent in the interdependence between patient and providers’ roles. The typology aims to prompt discussion regarding the conceptualisation patients’ roles in healthcare organisations, and the individual, employee, organisational and contextual factors that may help and hinder their involvement in service delivery and improvement. The authors close by noting four areas meriting further research attention, and potentially useful theoretical lenses.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate “what” critical attributes are actually associated with the development of blockchain technology and “how” it influences service improvement in the context of tourism and hospitality operations.

This paper aims to provide a new and novel viewpoint by using the blockchain perspective to discover the relationships between knowledge management, sustainability marketing and service improvement using 311 samples collected from tourism and hospitality firms in Taiwan.

The results show that knowledge management may influence service improvement through sustainability marketing commitment. Furthermore, the study found that consumer interest may strengthen the relationships between knowledge management, sustainability marketing and service improvement. Additionally, the sub-dimension of knowledge management is also discussed in the integrated mediation–moderation model.

The results provide sufficient support for employees or managers undertaking new technology or development to facilitate business-to-consumer trade models in their present and future operations.

The study advances the existing tourism and hospitality literature by identifying consumer interest as an important effective characteristic that may positively strengthen the relationship among critical attributes of knowledge management and sustainability marketing commitment during the service improvement process.