Tqm in Healthcare

Although quality techniques have been applied for over a decade in manufacturing industries, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a relative new system to the American healthcare industry. The American healthcare industry could possibly benefit more from the implementation of a Total Quality Management (TQM) system than any other industry in the United States. Total Quality Management (TQM) is the challenge of meeting and exceeding customer expectations. As quality has become such an essential part in customer satisfaction we must come to realize that Total Quality Management (TQM) is in one way or another here to stay. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a common sense approach that could be implemented in any business, and stresses process improvement at all levels of an organization and the importance of understanding how to achieve goals efficiently. The goal of a Total Quality Management (TQM) program in the healthcare setting is to reduce costs and improve customer or patient satisfaction. This goal is achieved, in part, by seeing patients in a timely manner, charging these patients a reasonable price for the services they are receiving, and reducing patient follow-up visits. In the health care administrative setting, the goal of any Total Quality Management (TQM) program is to improve work procedures; therefore reducing overhead that is nonessential to the delivery of health care. There are great opportunities for healthcare organizations to save money if they are willing to change existing processes. These savings then can be used to meet needs in other parts of the healthcare organization. Perhaps no other industry could benefit more from implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques than the healthcare industry. Experts maintain that a huge portion of the nation 's annual healthcare expenditures can be attributed to waste and inefficiency. Spending on health care nationwide has hit record highs, as much as 14 percent of the nation 's total

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