Booking processes for minor procedures in a fifteen bed rural hospital: a total quality management project.

The pressure to improve the quality of clinical and customer service outcomes and the challenge to design work processes that predictably lead to satisfying and cost-effective results, was incentive enough for management to implement Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement projects in this 15 bed rural hospital. Patients arriving unannounced at the hospital for minor procedures were identified as a problem by the nursing staff. Data were collected and a team set up to look at ways to streamline this process.