Integrating quality assurance and total quality management/quality improvement.

Hospitals have joined other industries in the quest for quality improvement. Most healthcare organizations have processes in place to meet the quality assurance standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The challenge is to integrate these two similar, but different, structures into one efficient and effective mechanism for quality. One hospital's effort to develop a pilot program to combine total quality management/quality improvement and quality assurance in a cost-effective and efficient manner is described.