Quality management seeks to improve effectiveness of treatments and increase patient satisfaction with the service. With an aging population and rising health care costs, quality management in health care is gaining increased attention. A health care system comprises small and large entities, such as pharmacies, medical clinics and hospitals, and all components need to provide quality service for the system to work properly.

Patient Focus

Effective quality management is focused on the needs of the patients because they are the ones who judge the effectiveness of treatments and the appropriateness of the service. Patient needs and expectations change over time; consequently, sound quality management calls for constant monitoring of the patients’ progress and satisfaction with the service. This monitoring uses both objective and subjective means -- for example, medical test results and the patient’s opinion of the effectiveness of treatments -- to judge the quality of the treatment approach.

Leadership

Quality management in health care requires the close cooperation of people with diverse expertise. Service providers should agree on the shared goal of providing quality service, and this can come about only if supervisors assume a leadership role and motivate employees.

Reliability

Quality management is essentially about delivering consistent quality, which, in turn, requires reliable processes. Reliability requires the existence of performance goals, risk reduction procedures, quality improvement policies, quality measurement systems and reward mechanisms.

External Environment

The health care sector is highly regulated and