Improving outpatient registration with TQM.

Quality improvement techniques have long been used in clinical departments to improve the quality of patient care. More recently, however, continuous quality improvement and total quality management techniques have been applied in nonclinical hospital departments with the goal of increasing efficiency, productivity, and cost effectiveness. In this article, the author describes how quality improvements in outpatient registration can lead to improved customer satisfaction, enhanced hospital-physician relationships, and increased revenue from outpatient services.