Strategic quality planning

Instilling the principles of total quality management (TQM) into organizations is a difficult undertaking, yet many leaders of health care organizations are forging this paradigmatic shift with encouraging results. In this paper, a practical approach is described that has been deployed within an occupational and environmental health setting. The vehicle for this transformation is called the Strategic Quality Plan. Once the purpose was clearly elucidated by the leadership, a basic design of the plan was developed that melded two interrelated goals: achieving strategic business objectives by applying quality principles. The resulting matrix became the basis for detailed flowcharts that show the steps, inputs, decision points, deadlines, and continuous improvement loops for each strategic objective. A deployment plan was developed to aid implementation.