The Application of Kano Model in the Study of Client’ Needs in Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy Clinics

Introduction: supplying the requirements and consequently the customer’s satisfaction has been one of the fundamental issues since the last decade. in active organizations in the section of health and treatment, individual’s satisfaction will be considered as their feelings toward realizing their expectations. therefore, the aim of study was to investigate the client needs in the speech therapy and occupational therapy clinics using the kano model. material and methods: the current research has a descriptive-analytical nature that was conducted among 150 clients referred to the speech therapy and occupational therapy clinics in kerman who have been randomly selected between the fall and winter 2014. the data were collected by kano questionnaire that its validity had been approved by the content validity method (due to the standard questions) and its reliability by the testing and retesting method and calculating the cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the data then were analyzed using ms excel and spss software and through the data frequency distribution in the adjusted table of kano and calculating the satisfaction and dissatisfaction coefficients. results: in this study, 32 needs were identified that 13 of them were must-be needs, 12 of them were one-dimensional ones, 5 of them were attractive ones, and 2 of them were categorized as indifferent needs. the highest satisfaction coefficient for the appropriate appearance of therapist was determined (0.66), and the highest dissatisfaction coefficient for having excellent communicative skills and good attitude of therapist was determined (−0.96). conclusion: managers and therapists of speech therapy and occupational therapy clinics can design their short-term and long-term plans, depending on the type of need and its satisfaction and dissatisfaction coefficient and based on the priorities that there are for needs in kano model and consequently they can manage their resources and time efficiently.