The Fall and Rise of TQM at a Public Mental Health Hospital

Public mental health care is undergoing a period of fundamental change as it attempts to adapt to an environment characterized by increasing fiscal constraints, the need to demonstrate effectiveness of services, and consumer empowerment. Total quality management (TQM) provides a framework that enables mental health care to meet these demands. The author provides his perspective on a public, multipurpose psychiatric hospital’s (Georgia Regional Hospital at Augusta) experience in making the transition from quality assurance to TQM. Successful implementation of TQM rests on clinical staff’s viewing TQM as a useful mechanism for achieving agreed-on patient/customer goals. Staff cannot simply do what they have been doing, but now do it better, there needs to be an understanding of what “better” means. When first introduced in 1992, TQM was viewed by staff as the latest variant of quality assurance—and was therefore unsuccessful. When reintroduced in 1993, TQM contributed to the development of a psychosocial rehabilitation program. The staff’s active involvement in establishing patient-specific goals was critical to the program’s success. The hospital’s Performance Improvement Committee has spearheaded the monitoring of treatment programs and the development of critical paths. In developing critical paths, the treatment team sets goals for patients’ improvement both within the hospital and postdischarge and for treatment processes. The keys to a successful TQM program are effective leadership, a clear organizational mission, customer-oriented performance goals, staff empowerment, and the application of the scientific method to the workings of the organization. Without goals you cannot improve. Total quality management does not directly provide you with goals—it provides a mechanism for systematically achieving your goals.