Total quality management in health care.

Total quality management (TQM), continuous quality improvement (CQI) and quality control are terms that are becoming very familiar to workers in the health care environment. The purpose of this article is to discuss these terms and the concepts they describe. The origins of TQM and the keen interest in its application to the health care environment today are addressed. In other environments, TQM has shown significant increases in productivity while increasing effectiveness. Its application to the health care environment is the provision of the best possible care through continuously improving service to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of the customer. The customer in the health care environment could be the patient, staff, physician and community serviced by the hospital. Characteristics of the new organizational structure are reviewed. Established techniques and processes are commonly used to identify process-improvement opportunities to assist the manager in continuously evaluating quality trends.