Total quality management strategies in mental health systems

This paper introduces the concept of total quality management (TQM) to top managers of mental health systems. While TQM is a philosophy of management at the cutting edge of U.S. business, it has only recently entered the vocabulary of health care managers. To our knowledge, TQM has yet to be systematically applied to the state mental health service delivery system. After introducing some key concepts and techniques, we develop two extensive examples of how TQM can be integrated into the already existing management structure of the psychiatric hospital.