Abstract:

In recent years, significant quality studies have been carried out through standards in health services. When the historical development of quality is considered, it is seen to consist of four stages, which are “examination, quality control, quality assurance and total quality management”. The quality assurance stage is the stage during which the compliance with the determined standards is achieved, in other words, it is the stage during which documentation is performed, and it is also a step within the total quality management. There are many hospitals in Turkey both receiving ISO 9000 Quality Management System Certificates and achieving the compliance with the Service Quality Standards created by the Ministry of Health. However, the presence of the elements of the Total Quality Management (TQM) in these hospitals and, as a result, the presence of a cultural change in the field cannot be clearly stated. In the light of the above-mentioned information, the problem statement of our study is “To what extent the quality assurance stage is a mediation stage in the transition to the total quality management?” In order to find out the answer to this question in the field, the perceptions regarding the implementation level of the total quality management elements of the staff at a university hospital which has been within the certification process since 2008, which has various ISO Management System Certificates and which has also been making efforts to comply with the standards determined by the Ministry of Health were questioned. According to the findings obtained, the perceptions of the implementation levels of the total quality management elements of the staff were concluded to be at a moderate level in line with the results of this study and the observations made at the Turkish healthcare institutions, despite the high level of compliance with the standards in the Turkish Healthcare Sector why the implementation level of the TQM elements has not developed in this direction and why critical success factors regarding TQM have not been achieved have been discussed.

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