The effect of process quality improvement and lean practices on competitive performance in the UAE healthcare industry

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine a theoretical model which identifies the effect of process quality improvement and lean practices on competitive performance in the healthcare industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study uses a quantitative research technique with convenient cluster sampling through applying a descriptive, causal and analytical research design. A valid sample size of 270 respondents is used for analysis by linear regression and hypothesis testing using SPSS. The results indicate a direct significant relationship between process quality improvement and a direct significant relationship between lean practices and competitive performance. Given the substantial resources spent and efforts to improve healthcare quality, the absence of studies demonstrating the impact of quality-related operations and activities would require future research. Hospitals in one city in UAE have access that limits the research results. It is recommended that future research assess more variables dependency on the healthcare sector that can affect increase competitiveness. The research provides some managerial implications that could help hospital managerial members improve their healthcare delivery system's leanness and quality improvement to get competitiveness. Quality improvement and lean practices help increase competitive performance and can assist the healthcare sector in providing better service using these practices that have never been considered in research.