The Health Care Industry - Total Quality Management

The Health Care Industry is one of the most important industries if not the most important one. The Health Care industry consists of everything from the little pharmacy across the street, drugs processing plants all the way to the hospital where we immune our kids. The Health Care industry affects nearly every living person. Most people don't realize how important this industry is and how it affects their everyday lives, not to mention how complicated it is. That is why it is so critical that products and services of this industry are at their highest quality and are free of harm to ensure that the consumer will not face any damaging consequences. Therefore, as any other industry, quality in the health care system has become the element in the world’s market competition and Total Quality Management (TQM) plays a big role in promising that result. TQM was widely accepted by Japan from 1950 onward. They used this principle for continuous refinement of an organization-wide quality system. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Japanese and their U.S. companies demonstrated that high quality is achievable at lower costs and greater customer satisfaction. It was the result of using the management principles of total quality management. Since then many organizations around the world have adopted TQM or similar methodologies. There have been many successes and many reported failures. Success of the system depends on the total commitment of the people to quality from top to bottom within the organization. TQM implementation is based on team work and the philosophy of continuous improvement. As hospitals are indispensable part of our health care system, which predominantly provides curative health care services, and as hospitals seem to occupy a very small part in overall health care system in terms of number, yet in fact hospitals take a major chunk of expenditure on health care and also mark the reputation of health system, and with the rising cost of health care services, hospitals have to carry out their functions effectively & efficiently so that, appropriate quality of care is provided at a cost acceptable by the Society.

As King Abdulaziz University Hospital’s management is running on an older system, which adds to workers that call out more sick days and abuse the Hospital’s production procedure, organizational problems decoding means that all the members of the organization participate in cultivating a vision and improving the corporate cultures. In any change program one must comprehend where his organization is before he can chart a course of where he want his organization to be. Therefore, before executing TQM or another program, it is important to add the total value of the organization in terms of its current quality or performance class and to define the level of performance or quality he wants to achieve.

Steps To Implement TQM:

1. Organizational vision:

Organizational vision provides the frame work that guides a firm’s believes and values. The general picture of the corporate vision should be a simple, one sentence guide or motto that every employee knows, and more important, believes in. If well crafted, the vision statement can serve through a torrent of change in product and service technology. The strategic vision needs to consider both the external customer and the employees, but should lack a defining or differentiating phrase between them. For example, General Motors provides all employees a card with its strategic vision, including a cause-effect diagram that indicates the importance of team work. Simply stating a vision is not enough. It needs to be demonstrated by the actions of the executives, managers, superiors, foremen, and individuals. It should be done continuously in all their actions and initiatives. Moreover, deliberation must be exercised in developing these goals and strategies. They must reflect the values and culture of the work force. While top-management commitment is essential, managers should realize when to lead and when to get out of the way. In a sense quality management is management from the bottom up. An atmosphere of responsibility must be created toward the customer for whatever product is produced or service is rendered. Strategies in successful vision implementation demonstrate commitment.

2. Barrier Removal

It is inevitable that change will be resisted. In fact, a great deal of effort in quality management is expended in overcoming such resistance, usually by allowing change to come from individuals directly involved, rather from management. The whole idea of continuous improvement leads to continuous change.

Some of these barriers are:

- We know what they really want (without asking them).

- Quality