Abstract:
Total Quality Management (TQM) offers a method for solving quality and
patient safety problems of healthcare and bringing significant improvement to
hospital performance. However, only few studies have been conducted in the area
in developing countries, pa
rticularly in Saudi Arabia.
This research is carried out in an attempt to address this gap, exploring the
impact of applying TQM practices on hospital performance in the Saudi Ministry
of Health hospitals. The study has included four hospitals in
Tabuk Region,
namely: King Khaled Hospital, King Fahad Hospital, Maternity and Children
Hospital and Hagel General Hospital. The four hospitals are selected for this study
because they are either accredited by the Central Board for Accreditation of
Health
care Institutions (CBAHI) or currently involved in the accreditation process.
The CBAHI was established in 2006 to help improve health services in both public
and private hospitals through the accreditation process.
The data collection was admini
stered by the researcher where 400
questionnaires were distributed using a convenient sampling technique in order to
access the required data. The response rate was 67.25 % of the total questionnaires
distributed. TQM constructs employed in the study were
consecutively as follows:
Leadership, Employee Management, Information Analysis, Training, Customer
Focus, Continuous Improvement, Process Management and Supplier management,
Many hospitals worldwide have adopted TQM to improve hospital
performan
ce in terms of increased economic efficiency, improved clinical
outcomes, improved customer satisfaction, and increased market acceptance.
Therefore, this study has identified the relationship between the implementations
of the independent variables (TQM)
practices and the dependant variable (Hospital
Performance) in the Saudi hospitals.
