Total Quality Management in Hospitals Based on the EFQM Model (diss.)

Researchers: 

A. Pira, Prof. Dr. P. Schönsleben, Prof. M. Baertschi 

Partners:

Two Swiss hospitals

Financed by:

The project partners

Motivation:

Costs in the healthcare sector have increased significantly throughout the past 25 years, and this trend is expected to continue. More than 50 % of these costs arise in hospitals. In order to control the cost, fundamental changes in the healthcare sector are taking place. One promising management approach focusing on the customer and the continuous improvement of the structure, the process, and the outcome is Total Quality Management (TQM). However, since hospitals have not gained much experience in dealing with business issues, for many of them the implementation of TQM is a major barrier. Additionally, there is no adequate approach for implementing TQM in hospitals that could be used as a guideline.

The objectives of the project are:

• The first objective of this project was to analyze the applicability of the TQM-model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM model) in hospitals, given that it was developed in industry. For this purpose experiments have been conducted involving employees of different hospitals. Each person's task was to group TQM-criteria in a way that would be logical to her or him. The evaluation of the results showed that the employees of the hospitals involved do not fundamentally question the EFQM model. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the criterion ''processes'' as well as the aspects ''communication and information'' in particular need to be taken into consideration in the implementation of the EFQM model.
• Following the study aforementioned, the second objective was to develop a method for the implementation of TQM in hospitals based on the EFQM model. Different methods for implementing TQM in hospitals were analyzed. It became evident that many methods do not adequately take into account essential aspects of TQM such as ''people management'' or ''culture'' and do not pay enough attention to the ''unfreezing-phase'' of TQM-implementation. Therefore, a method has been developed that considers both the theory of structural and cultural change as well as the critical success factors for the implementation of TQM in a hospital. In order to evaluate the suitability of this method not only from a theoretical perspective but also from a practical angle, at least the first phase of the method has been applied to hospitals. The results show that the method has led to a success in terms of learning as well as a positive change of the participants' attitudes towards TQM.

The following activities have already been completed:

• The work was completed and published in 1999.