Quality management in complementary and integrative medicine.

Quality management (QM) is an important tool for an effective and safe healthcare which also includes complementary and integrative medicine. Improving the three areas of quality (quality of structure, quality of process, and quality of results) is beneficial for patients and providers. Improvements of process, product and QM systems have a direct impact on time, quality, human resources, and costs. As a result, patient care improves and physicians and statutory sickness funds will benefit from increased efficiency. Several QM systems with different main focus exist. First publications about QM in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) hospitals are from the 1990s. In order to increase the benefit and to avoid pitfalls, the implementation of a QM system should be planned systematically.