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

Abstract

Synergistic integration of predictors and elements that determine the successof total quality management (TQM) implementations in hospitals has been the bane oftheoretical development in the TQM research area. Thus, this paper aims to offer a systematicliterature review to provide a foundation on which research on TQM can be built and toidentify the predictors of successful TQM in the health-care context.Materials and methods: A systematic literature survey was adopted in this paper, involvingthe review of 25 relevant researched articles found in the databases Science Direct,EBSCO, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PubMed.Result: 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 thehealth-care context. Also, it is revealed that the identified core predictors have positiveeffects on an improved health-care system. However, the systematic survey of the literaturereveals a dearth of studies on TQM in the health-care context.Conclusion: As TQM has become an important management approach for advancingeffectiveness in the health-care sector, this kind of research is of value to researchers andmanagers. Stakeholders in the health sectors should introduce and implement TQM inhospitals and clinics. Nevertheless, this study has limitations, including that the databasesand search engines adopted for the literature search are not exhaustive.