Organisational improvement: one hospital's experience of implementing TQM

The implementation of total quality management (TQM) in the British National Health Service (NHS) has become an anachronism. Most NHS managers are not interested in TQM as a strategy for improving organisational performance and patient care because of the general belief among NHS managers that TQM fails to tackle the critical needs of organisations in trouble, particularly on issues such as improving organisational performance, efficiency and effectiveness. The paper, however, through the use of a single case study, can confirm contrary to the views of NHS managers, that the concept and philosophy of TQM is indeed an effective approach in achieving organisational performance improvement when a systems approach to implementation is adopted. Furthermore, the paper suggests that the most successful and sustainable approach to the implementation of TQM in healthcare is the systems management approach that aligns structure, systems and outcomes.