Final Project Total Quality Management in Health Care

This final project paper discusses one of the most important healthcare-related quality issues – Total quality management in health care. It is not a secret that today, the issue concerning quality is related to all the spheres of the US economy including education, industry, agriculture, jurisdiction, and, of course, healthcare. The paper gives a brief description of total quality management in healthcare system, and identifies and discusses the major stakeholders that are involved in addressing the quality issue. Moreover, the paper discusses potential barriers that exist in healthcare system and that would make this specific quality improvement project difficult to implement. The recommendations to overcome these barriers are also represented in the paper.

 
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, health care organizations play an important role in the development of healthy society. It is not a secret that due to ecological disturbance including water, air and soil pollution and the consequences of economic crisis a great deal of people have ruined their health. Many psychological problems also influence the state of health of the population. Of course, the population requires such health care services that will make everything possible to improve health status.
Today, the quality of health care services is one of the most important issues in the system of health care. Both the patients and the government are “increasingly concerned” about it. It is known that a great deal of different approaches have already been used by the health care specialists in the United States in order “to ensure and improve quality of health care services”. However, some of these approaches either have failed or have led to rather high costs in health care system. Total quality management has two major goals – to improve the quality of health care services and to reduce high costs. It is also known that some hospitals in the United States have already implemented total quality management methods. In most cases, the results are positive but, of course, some difficulties can be found in each health care organization.(Gaucher & Coffey, 2003, p.47)
Many patients are not satisfied with “long waiting times” requires for this or that procedure as well as the way the health care personnel treat them. The other problem is connected with the fact that some types of health care services are rather expensive while the quality is rather low. (Gaucher & Coffey, 2003, p.35)
Total quality management will make it possible to improve patient satisfaction and to reduce costs in health care system to a great extent.
DEFINITION OF THE TERM TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH CARE
Total quality management in health care is focused on three dimensions of quality which are closely connected with “customer satisfaction” and include the following ones:
• Patients quality (if the health care services supply the needs of the patients);
• Professional quality (if the health care personnel correctly define the procedures and perform the duties which are necessary to meet the needs of the patients);
• management quality (if the appropriate resources were efficient and productive to meet the needs of the patients, “without any waste and within the limits set by the health care authorities. (Gaucher & Coffey, 2003, p.19)
The term quality and its relation to healthcare
It is known that the term quality can be defined in different ways. First of all, quality is a so called “superiority of excellence”. Secondly, quality is “conformance to requirements”. In health care system, quality is also very important. Both the American National Standards Institute and American Society Quality give the following definition to the term quality: “the totality of features and characteristics of care or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs”. (Patel 1)
The history of quality movement and total quality management
It is known that the first standards in practice medicine can be related to the first century AD, in India and China. In 1140, the first efforts to license medical practice were expended in Europe including state examinations in medicine, some educational standards. (Morgan & Murgatroyd, 1994, p.32)
In 1917, the modern quality movement started in health care of the United States. It is known that the American College of Surgeons issued the first standards for the hospitals in order to improve health care system. This fact is related to the creation of accreditation process that is managed by the US Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health care organizations in the United States. (Morgan & Murgatroyd, 1994, p.40)
In 1980s-1990s, most of the US health care organizations began to implement Total quality management and Continuous quality improvement because of low level of the inspection process and poor quality of services. Edward Deming, Armand Fiegenbaum, Joseph Juran and others were the pioneers of Total quality management in industry. They implemented statistical methods to management in order to rise customer satisfaction. Their ideas were used by different types of organization throughout the world including healthcare organizations. (Morgan & Murgatroyd, 1994, p.42)