The effectiveness of Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Research Paper

The effectiveness of Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement in the Healthcare setting - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that as the healthcare industry continues to meet the challenges of escalating costs, high turnover in personnel, and continuing customer service complaints, healthcare has turned to Total Quality Management to address the issues and implement solutions. The present research has identified that Total Quality Management (TQM), also called Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), has been utilized to assess efficiency, quality of care, cost-effectiveness and safety issues. The researcher states that Swedish hospitals employed TQM and CQI when confronted with avoidable patient injuries, the wastefulness of healthcare resources, and public criticism of health care management and quality of care. Their use of Total Quality Management resulted in mixed reviews. Øvretveit noted the obstacles of costs and time constraints, especially on physicians’ time, that limited the comprehensive use of TQM. The notice was made regarding the hierarchies indwelling in hospital social strata, that of both the physicians and the nurses, and the disregard of management to institute real change. According to the research findings, TQM teams were set up, but the meetings were reduced as more pressing factors (patient emergencies) limited the meeting times and the efficacy of the process.   Often decisions impacting patient care bypassed the TQM process for a quicker resolution to an immediate issue.... confronted with avoidable patient injuries, wastefulness of health care resources, and public criticism of health care management and quality of care (Ovretveit , 2003, 6). Their use of Total Quality Management resulted in mixed reviews. Ovretveit noted the obstacles of costs and time constraints, especially on physicians’ time, that limited the comprehensive use of TQM (11). Notice was made regarding the hierarchies indwelling in hospital social strata, that of both the physicians and the nurses, and the disregard of management to institute real change. TQM teams were set up, but the meetings were reduced as more pressing factors (patient emergencies) limited the meeting times and the efficacy of the process. Often decisions impacting patient care bypassed the TQM process for a quicker resolution to an immediate issue. The Korean Hospitals have been most successful at implementing TQM as they have built in a TQM or CQI department from the beginning. Rather than making TQM a s econdary model for management, the Korean hospitals have embraced TQM as their total problem-solving solution. This resulted in Korean hospitals having created and managed TQM programs in 72% of their hospitals (Lee, 384). The major impact of this study determined that the climate of organizational change and the implementation of statistical data were the primary factors in the successful use of TQM and CQI (Lee, 391). Unfortunately, the openness to institutional change and the collection of statistical data were two of the most common issues reported as detrimental to change. Zbaracki (1988), in his article, â€Å"The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management,† states there are several places that the TQM implementation can go off track. The hospital setting has its peculiarities of