Strategy to Quality

The next installment of this series will address the strategic aspects of achieving quality. Strategy can be defined as the path an organization takes from how they are today to how they would like to be in the future. Some call that future the vision of the organization. In this case the vision of the future has to be to run a hospital that cures everyone of their sickness and never makes a mistake. Sounds easy enough...

As an organization we can conceptually see where we want to be. We want to be free of errors that can be prevented. But before we can attempt to devise a strategy to get there we must do two things. We must do an analysis of the external environment that may be contributing to quality problems, but we must also to an internal environment analysis to see where we currently are.

You may have heard the phrase, "what you can measure, you can manage." Focusing internally on the organization would be the first step I would take. Start to find ways to improve the detection and reporting errors. Begin to establish a culture that sees errors as a way to improve and not a fear of reprimand. When you begin to understand the situation you are in, then we can begin to devise a strategy to remedy it.