TQM in health care: mistaken identity?

Total Quality Management is a powerful tool in health care today. The definition of quality improvement in the medical literature focuses on improving patient outcomes. However, most quality initiatives in the health care field focus on improving productivity, cost-effectiveness, market share, employee morale, and efficiencies of processes. This disparity between the medical definition of quality and the actual application of quality improvement may have the effect of alienating many physicians, the very people who must be involved. The semantics are important to address in a TQM initiative.