TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - THE NEW PARADIGM IN HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT.

Hospitals are by nature complex organisations and the complexity is compounded in service hospitals with perceived notion of service deficiencies. Quality has emerged as a major issue in health care sector and TQM has been accepted as a major long-term strategic initiative towards continuously improving quality of health care. Key concepts of TQM start with top management leadership with emphasis on process and customer focus. Implementation of TQM in service hospitals will require Quality Management awareness, training and framework development as well as development of customer awareness. TQM has been widely applied in clinical field with successful outcome. TQM is not a short-term solution, it has to be understood and practised as a long-term strategic commitment.