Quality Management : An Integrative Management Philosophy

In the United States alone there are 98,000 deaths per year caused by low quality health care (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013, pg. 2). This statistic is disturbing because the errors that resulted in death were errors that were preventable. The intent of this chapter is to bring awareness to health care providers that are able to make a change in the quality of health care. In current practice patients are subjected to medication errors, preventable hospitalizations, premature death, and poor care provided due to racial, ethical, or low-income factors.

The Total Quality Management ( TQM) can be defined as the holistic approach for the long term success which can be visible in the ongoing development in every aspect of the organization process. The overall transformation of the organization can go through various changes in different systems, structures, practices and the attitudes.

Quality Management is viewed as a vital factor for the long-term achievement of an organization. Quality Management implementation has been an imperative viewpoint for enhancing organizational performance. The connections between quality management and execution have been explored by various researchers. While analyzing the relationship between quality management and execution, researchers have utilized distinctive execution sorts, for example, budgetary, creative, operational and quality execution. Research on quality administration has analyzed the connections between the Total quality administration and organization's performance. Quality management concentrates on continuous change of processes inside the organization to give excellent

It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).

To begin with, quality management is defined as, “the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level

Millions of Americans surrender to conditions that are both preventable and manageable annually. Besides chronic diseases, researchers have identified that the third leading cause of death in America is the errors conducted by professional medical practitioners. While medicine is a highly considered field, some of the practices that contribute to the errors observed include the absence of patient safety, poorly coordinated care, and inefficient healthcare quality improvement. Significant steps that can be taken to reduce deaths caused by medical errors include good communication, cooperation, use of advanced technology and implementation of quality healthcare among

The Institute of Medicine released a report in 1999 titled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System concerning the number of medical error related deaths. The report states that between 44,000 and 98,000 medical error related deaths occur each year in hospitals across the country (Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. S., 2000) In response to this report, the Institute of Medicine released Crossing the Quality Chasm: Health: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century that outlines six aims for the future of the healthcare system: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, equitable (Institute of Medicine, 2001). These aims set to establish the quality of healthcare across the country. Quality is defined by the Institute of Medicine as ““the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (2001).

The authors in this article discuss about how hospitals have been trying to cut back on costs while simultaneously attempting to provide high quality patient care. It is mentioned that approximately 200,000 Americans die yearly from preventable medical errors. It is up to the healthcare professionals to provide the best care possible for their patients.

Quality and safety initiatives are driving important changes in the U.S. health care delivery system. Quality in health care is defined as the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes are consistent with current professional knowledge (Nash & Goldfarb, 2006, p. 6). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err is Human, states that most of the medical errors are resulted from system error and processes. Medical Errors account for 98,000 deaths per year in the US. They increase disability, costs, and decrease confidence in the US health care system (Pham, Aswani, Rosen, Lee, Huddle, Weeks, & Pronovost, 2012). And because of this, the IOM established six aims for improvement. These are safety (care should be as safe for patients in health care facilities as in their homes); effectiveness (the science and evidence behind health care should be applied and serve as the standard in the delivery of care); efficiency (care and service should be cost effective, and waste should be removed from the system); timeliness (patients should experience no waits or delays in receiving care and service); patient-centeredness (the system of care should revolve around the patient, respect patient preferences, and put the patient in control); and equity (unequal treatment should be a fact of the past; disparities in care should be eradicated). These six aims should be measured in order to assess whether the health care

Total quality management can be defined as a system of management that is based on the principle that every staff member needs to be committed to maintaining standards of work in every aspect of a company’s operations. This form of management is done in order to make sure that the entire organization can excel as a whole when it comes to the products or services that are important to the customer. Subsequently, this form of management has two fundamental operational goals. These goals are; careful design of the product or service, and ensuring that the organizations systems can produce the design at a consistent rate. What makes these two goals so important is the fact that they cannot be accomplished without the entire organizations unity. Furthermore this is how the term total quality management, was established.

The article highlighted several areas on how quality management affects the performance of an organization. Studies done have come back with mixed results. Some studies have proven that implementing quality implementation can have many benefits to an organization. However some studies have shown that organizations that have implemented total quality managements do not necessarily outperform organizations that do not or have not implemented total quality management programs. Of the results that have been published for organizations that had issues with quality management implementation several

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines quality healthcare as, “doing the right thing for the right patient, at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best possible results”. Quality healthcare in the United States is lacking due to misuse leading to injury, underuse due to many patients not receiving necessary treatment, and overuse of care that is not needed. A lack of quality care can lead to serious harm or even death to patients. Studies show that due to incorrect care, as many as 91,000 Americans die each year. Tens of thousands die each year due to preventable hospital errors. Studies have also shown that quality care has significantly improved among health care facilities that participate in programs that pay

Health care systems around the world are struggling with rising costs and unequal quality of care and many solutions like error reduction, enforcing practice guidelines and implementation of Electronic Medical Records were tried without much effect (Porter & Lee, 2013). The primary goal of any Country’s health care system is to provide high quality and cost effective care, which produces quality patient outcomes for all.

Quality management is an act that monitor all activities that needed to maintain and sustain high quality output, continuous improvement of process and product to a desire level of excellence in order to create customer satisfaction (Flynn, Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1994, p. 342). Nowadays, increase in globalization and international trade had led to the increase of competition in the global market. The increase of competition had forced companies to focus on the concept of quality in their business and discover that effective quality management can increase their competitive advantage in the global market (Anderson, Rungtusanatham, & Schroeder, 1994).

In this assignment I will try to discuss about how Quality Management helps in Hospitality industry. Quality is a main part of any business providers. Concept of Quality Management is creating and implementing quality planning authority, as well as control and improve the quality. They can help to improve efficiency and best practice to fellow workers. As well as it is very important element to identify customer’s satisfaction and expectation.