th care (Banham, 1993, pp. 14-15).
The basic concepts of programmistic approaches to quality management are compatible with the philosophical beliefs long and widely held within the medical community (Jeffer, 1991, pp. 546-550). Thus, health care professionals are not being asked to adopt something that is alien to their disciplines when it is suggested that health care may benefit from quality management (Bell, 1992, pp. 132-136).
Nevertheless, the issue of quality management tends to be divisive among some groups of health care professionals (Solovy, 1993, pp. 14-19). There is every reason to believe, however, that health care delivery institutions may benefit from the implementation of quality management programs, and that patient satisfaction at such institutions will be improved through the adoption of such programs.
In the pursuit of care quality, organizations redesigning their patient care delivery operations are formulating new work processes, exploiting the capabilities of technology, and remodeling facilities to support process and organizational innovations with an expectation that they are gaining competitive advantages for a changing marketplace (Schweikart, 1996, p. 21). Emerging models of patient care delivery are designed to fit an organization's unique market, physician relationships, employee base, and other competitive strengths. Those undertaking patient care restructuring initiatives expect improved performance in a number of areas including patient satisfaction, patient outcomes, productivity, continuity of care, nurse satisfaction, and physician satisfaction.
To accomplish the objectives of improved care quality and patient satisfaction, while simultaneously controlling the costs of delivery of health care, acute care institutions are seeking to better utilize their resources·financial, human, and physical. Application of the case management concept, as indicated above, is one of the actions b...