An emergency department perspective--Part one.

High patient volumes requiring rapid turn around times, critical decision making processes, and a necessity for establishing an accurate working diagnosis are a few of the many challenges in hospital emergency departments. Quality management, rather than quality assurance, most accurately describes how activities in the emergency department should be monitored to meet these challenges. Already an important factor in manufacturing and service industries across the United States, quality management will become the essential driving force in the health care industry. To survive in the '90s, the emergency department must include in its goals the development of plans and processes that meet the challenge of the ED environment and that focus on customer satisfaction.