Critical success factors for total quality management implementation within Thai public hospitals

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to examine the critical success factors for total quality management implementation and the hospital accreditation level in Thai public hospitals, and to explore the theoretical linkage between the critical success factors for total quality management and hospital performance. The Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis were used to find out the relationship among the variables. The data were collected from Thai public hospitals. The findings showed that 9 critical factors of TQM (leadership, strategy planning, customer focus, workforce focus, technology, process, CQI, KM, and culture) had a positively significant impact on hospital performance, while communication has no significant impact on it. Of the three performance dimensions: hospital management overview, hospital quality system, and customer satisfaction was found to have the most effect on hospital performance.

Based on these research findings, all people who worked in Thai public hospitals understood in the concept of Thailand’s healthcare policy implementation accepted it and were well prepared for improving their healthcare services by bettering all critical success factors of TQM that affected hospital performance to gain a higher quality and to provide safety services for patients.