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Ann Thorac Surg 1996;62:1358-1359
© 1996 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Invited Commentary

Invited Commentary

Richard P. Anderson, MD

Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Virginia Mason Clinic, 1100 Ninth Ave, PO Box 900, Seattle, WA 98111-0900

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

See also page 1351.

Medicine is being industrialized by managed care. This paradigm shift has been accompanied by the introduction of industrial quality improvement into the hospital and clinic. Whether termed continuous quality improvement or total quality management, the goal is to realize optimum output with minimum variability and conservation of resources. When medical practitioners first encounter quality improvement the reaction is likely to be "We're treating patients, not making widgets!" However, anyone will soon forget about widgets who has ever seen a hospital staff reenergized, chronic problems solved through unprecedented interdepartmental collaboration, and patients delighted because their expectations are exceeded.

One of the fundamental techniques . . . [Full Text of this Article]


Related Article

Applications of Statistical Quality Control to Cardiac Surgery
David M. Shahian, Warren A. Williamson, Lars G. Svensson, Joseph D. Restuccia, and Richard S. D'Agostino
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 1996 62: 1351-1358. [Abstract] [Full Text]





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