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Total Quality Management

Introduction: According Lee Revere in an article published by the Journal of Healthcare Management (2003, at least 7,000 deaths a year result from medication errors in U.S. hospitals alone. Reducing the number of error made is the goal of hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices and other places where health care are provided. The health care industry is an excellent candidate for any system to improve the quality of services provided to customers / patients because health care organizations and their employees recognize the importance of the work they do and the importance of reducing errors. Also, in a litigious society the fewer mistakes a health care provider organization makes, the less they will need to spend to defend lawsuits and to purchase malpractice insurance.

In this article, Revere describes the Six Sigma quality management process. The goal of Six Sigma is to reduce defects to 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma method and other forms of quality management involves a business strategy focusing on continuous process improvement and reductions in variation. Revere notes that Six Sigma is often used as part of a hospital's Total Quality Management (TQM) program.

In a traditional health care TQM program, problems are measured and studied before changes are made. A Six Sigma quality management program requires that problems be addressed as soon as they are identified. In Six Sigma, data gathered is the basis for action. The Six Sigma quality control methodology involves studying the frequency various types of error and their resulting impact. In every case, the most impact of poor quality control would involve death of a patient. Revere reminds readers that Six Sigma extends beyond the need to improve the quality of healthcare. Six Sigma has been used at hospitals to identify improvement opportunities, wh...

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Total Quality Management. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:27, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688475.html