A consensus support methodology for the initial self-assessment of the EFQM Excellence Model in healthcare organisations

Healthcare organisations using the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model for self-assessment have found an opportunity to work more effectively and a powerful driver for improvement. Nevertheless, when these organisations address self-assessment processes for the first time the initial effort needed presents many difficulties. The aim of this paper is to offer a consensus support methodology based on fuzzy logic under a linguistic approach that would undoubtedly contribute to conduct self-assessment processes with questionnaires. We assume qualitative evaluation, through linguistic labels, to facilitate the individual responses, and we use the concept of fuzzy majority to calculate the measures which guide the consensus reaching process.