Total quality management: an implementation strategy for excellence in the medical record department.

Trustees do not seem to agree on how quality accountability will be accomplished, but they are starting to agree that procedures to establish quality accountability are necessary. They also agree that leadership from the board level, coupled with a firm resolve to monitor quality, will ensure that hospitals provide high-quality care and services to their most important and influential customers: patients. The manufacturing industry has provided the health care industry with the benefit of its experiences with continuous quality improvement, including the pitfalls. It is both exciting and challenging to learn the philosophies of total quality management and build a customized strategy for excellence, especially in medical record departments. As a customer of numerous processes throughout the health care organization and a supplier of products and services as well, the MRD represents a common thread throughout the organization, often linking people and departments together. A medical record professional who is working in a health care organization whose executives believe in TQM can expect great things in the decade ahead.