The continuing quest for excellence in health care delivery

At the recent Perspectives in Medical Management conference in New Orleans, more than a dozen sessions focused on issues of medical quality management. Speakers discussed total quality management, explaining its features and how physician executives can implement strategies in their organizations. Others talked abut the benefits and applications of clinical benchmarking and clinical guidelines, while still others described how their organizations custom-tailored quality programs to meet their needs. Some of the highlights of the meeting are summarized on the following pages.