Measuring and benchmarking the quality of two different organizational ways in delivering infant vaccination

Introduction : The aim of this study was the quality of service evaluation of two different organizational ways in delivering infant vaccination according to a Regional Vaccination Plan.  Materials and Methods : Eleven vaccination centres were selected in two Local Health Units (ASLs) belonging to the Regional Health Service of the Lazio Region, Italy. The services offering paediatric vaccinations for children under three years of age, delivered with the need for an appointment (VACL) or else without an appointment (VACP), were investigated. The quality aspects under evaluation were communicational efficiency, organisational efficiency and comfort. Three steps are necessary to quantify the overall quality of service. Step 1 involves different stakeholders and the elicitation of best and worst feasible performance conditions for the ASLs when delivering VACP/VACL services (i.e., subjective data collection). Step 2 consists in the observation of current performances of the selected vaccination centres (i.e., objective data collection). Step 3 involves the combination of all data. Benchmarking between VACP and VACL, i.e., two different organisational ways in delivering infant vaccination, can be performed as a result of the probabilistic meaning of the evaluated scores.  Results : An expert of vaccination services, i.e., a virtual combination of patients, doctors and nurses, claims the quality of service delivery of the ASLs under investigation with probability 78.03% and 69.67% for VACL and VACP, respectively. In other words, for short, the quality scores of the ASLs were 78.03% for VACP and 69.67% for VACL. Furthermore our results show how to practically improve the current service delivery.