Deming's quality principles: a health care application

W. Edwards Deming is considered a guru of quality by many international manufacturers. His ideas revolutionized Japan's auto industry in the 1950s, but did not make a substantial impact in the United States until 1980. Increasingly, service organizations, from hotels to public utility companies, are experimenting with his principles. This article explains how a 165-bed community hospital--Brazosport Memorial Hospital in Lake Jackson, Texas--is putting Deming's ideas to work in health care. Deming's philosophy and principles are described as is the hospital's application and implementation of his ideas; preliminary results are encouraging.