Deming's quality principles: a health care application.
W. Edwards Deming is considered a guru of quality by many international manufacturers. His ideas revolutionized Japan's auto industry in the 1950s, but did not make a substantial impact in the United States until 1980. Increasingly, service organizations, from hotels to public utility companies, are experimenting with his principles. This article explains how a 165-bed community hospital--Brazosport Memorial Hospital in Lake Jackson, Texas--is putting Deming's ideas to work in health care. Deming's philosophy and principles are described as is the hospital's application and implementation of his ideas; preliminary results are encouraging.
Lynn
M L
ML
Abilene Christian University, TX 79699.
Osborn
D P
DP
D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D008332:Management Quality Circles; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013781:Texas