Alliant Health System
Is Alliant’s strategy Sound? What does it have to do well to succeed?
In 1986, Steve Williams and his team, under the supervision of Jim Petersdorf, developed a long range, corporate strategy that is Total Quality Management or TQM. As a not-for –profit organization, Alliant’s mission was to become “the leading provider of value-driven, superior quality health care in Louisville and the surrounding region.” According to Petersdorf, hospitals are escalating costs, using the excuse of providing quality. But in reality, quality is still questionable. In fact, in order to provide true value, hospitals would have to consider both cost and quality. Quick respond to customer needs are also more important than ever. Petersdorf believed that the way would be continuous quality improvement. It would be the central of everything the organization does, so that quality gets incorporated into the processes that make it virtually impossible to do something incorrectly. So, Alliant adopted the strategy of TQM to achieve a competitive advantage based on the management of quality.
To introduce TQM to the organization, a 10-point action plan was articulated. This action plan reflects the key philosophies of TQM- continuous improvements, customer satisfaction and involvement of everyone. Quality Management Teams headed by a member of quality council would implement that action plan with targeted programs and processes.
The TQM strategy has four components- CARES+, EQUIPS, Quality Improvement Teams (QIT) and Critical Paths. CARES+ is a quality planning and reviewing process. EQUIP is an employee suggestion program for increasing revenue, cutting cost, or simplifying work processes. For productivity improvements, soliciting ideas from workers are important. Quality improvement teams were empowered so that they could construct their own approaches to solve thorny problems like long queues in the emergency room. Critical paths approach was added to TQM strategy for managing
In 1986, Steve Williams and his team, under the supervision of Jim Petersdorf, developed a long range, corporate strategy that is Total Quality Management or TQM. As a not-for –profit organization, Alliant’s mission was to become “the leading provider of value-driven, superior quality health care in Louisville and the surrounding region.” According to Petersdorf, hospitals are escalating costs, using the excuse of providing quality. But in reality, quality is still questionable. In fact, in order to provide true value, hospitals would have to consider both cost and quality. Quick respond to customer needs are also more important than ever. Petersdorf believed that the way would be continuous quality improvement. It would be the central of everything the organization does, so that quality gets incorporated into the processes that make it virtually impossible to do something incorrectly. So, Alliant adopted the strategy of TQM to achieve a competitive advantage based on the management of quality.
To introduce TQM to the organization, a 10-point action plan was articulated. This action plan reflects the key philosophies of TQM- continuous improvements, customer satisfaction and involvement of everyone. Quality Management Teams headed by a member of quality council would implement that action plan with targeted programs and processes.
The TQM strategy has four components- CARES+, EQUIPS, Quality Improvement Teams (QIT) and Critical Paths. CARES+ is a quality planning and reviewing process. EQUIP is an employee suggestion program for increasing revenue, cutting cost, or simplifying work processes. For productivity improvements, soliciting ideas from workers are important. Quality improvement teams were empowered so that they could construct their own approaches to solve thorny problems like long queues in the emergency room. Critical paths approach was added to TQM strategy for managing