Overcoming the barriers to implementation of TQM/CQI in hospitals: myths and realities

Many health care organizations are attempting to rapidly implement total quality management (TQM) and continuous quality improvement (CQI) philosophies and concepts. In the case of hospitals, a number of issues resulting from traditional organizational design and management practices as well as the characteristics of health care professionals pose significant challenges to rapid implementation. Recognizing and developing strategies to address these challenges, along with realizing that TQM and CQI represent viable processes for conducting organizational "preventive maintenance," may help in changing the focus of quality assessment and enhancement initiatives from processes that are "broken" to processes that should be "fixed" before they "break." This article discusses strategies for overcoming some of the major barriers and challenges to successful TQM and CQI implementation to the hospital setting.