Total quality management in the health-care context: integrating the literature and directing future research

• Published in: Risk management and healthcare policy Vol. 12; pp. 167 - 177
• Main Authors: Alzoubi, Majdi M, Hayati, K S, Rosliza, A M, Ahmad, A A, Al-Hamdan, Z M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.01.2019; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Clinics; commitment; Competitive advantage; critical success factors; Customer satisfaction; Health care; Health care policy; Health sciences; Health services; healthcare; Hospitals; Literature reviews; Management; Medical wastes; Nurses; Nursing; Patients; Public health; Quality control; Quality management; Quality of care; Review; Search engines; Success; systematic literature review; Teaching hospitals; Total quality; Total Quality management; TQM implementation; Saudi Arabia; Selangor Malaysia; Malaysia; commitment; total quality management implementation; critical success factors; health care; systematic literature review; total quality management
• ISSN: 1179-1594; 1179-1594
• DOI: 10.2147/RMHP.S197038

Synergistic integration of predictors and elements that determine the success of total quality management (TQM) implementations in hospitals has been the bane of theoretical development in the TQM research area. Thus, this paper aims to offer a systematic literature review to provide a foundation on which research on TQM can be built and to identify the predictors of successful TQM in the health-care context. A systematic literature survey was adopted in this paper, involving the review of 25 relevant researched articles found in the databases Science Direct, EBSCO, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PubMed. The systematic literature survey reveals five variables to be core predictors of TQM, signifying how important these variables are in the successful implementation of TQM in the health-care context. Also, it is revealed that the identified core predictors have positive effects on an improved health-care system. However, the systematic survey of the literature reveals a dearth of studies on TQM in the health-care context. As TQM has become an important management approach for advancing effectiveness in the health-care sector, this kind of research is of value to researchers and managers. Stakeholders in the health sectors should introduce and implement TQM in hospitals and clinics. Nevertheless, this study has limitations, including that the databases and search engines adopted for the literature search are not exhaustive.