Total quality management at Bethesda, Inc.

This article describes 4 years of TQM implementation at Bethesda, Inc., a private not-for-profit diversified healthcare organization. Bethesda has used a comprehensive implementation strategy involving the use of process improvement teams, hoshin planning, daily management of critical processes, and quality function deployment. The article includes four process improvement case studies demonstrating the use of the seven quality control tools and a nine-step process improvement model. Factors contributing to processes as well as obstacles are described.