Please write at least 300 word discussion post repost for the below assigment.
INTRODUCTION
West Florida Regional Medical Center (WFRMC) is a Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)-owned and operated, for-profit hospital complex on the north side of Pensacola, Florida. Licensed for 547 beds, it operated approximately 325 beds in December 1991, plus the 89-bed psychiatric Pavilion and the 58-bed Rehabilitation Institute of West Florida. The 11-story office building of the Medical Center Clinic, P.A., was attached to the hospital facility, and a new cancer center was under construction.
The 130 doctors practicing at the Medical Center Clinic and its satellite clinics admitted mostly to WFRMC, whereas most of the other doctors in this city of 150,000 practiced at both Sacred Heart and Baptist Hospitals downtown. Competition for patients was intense, and in 1992, as many as 90% to 95% of patients in the hospital were admitted subject to discounted prices, mostly Medicare for the elderly, CHAMPUS for military dependents, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida for the employed and their dependents.
The continuous quality improvement (CQI) effort had had some real successes over the previous four years, especially in the areas where package prices for services were required. All of the management team had been trained in quality improvement techniques according to HCA’s Deming-based approach, and some 25 task forces were operating. The experiment with departmental self-assessments, using the Baldrige Award criteria and an instrument developed by HCA headquarters, had spurred department heads to become further involved and begin to apply quality improvement techniques within their own work units. Yet John Kausch, the Center’s CEO, and his senior leadership sensed some loss of interest among some managers, whereas others who had not bought into the idea at first were now enthusiasts.
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
1.What were the strategic reasons behind West Florida Regional Medical Center’s (WFRMC’s) decision to invest heavily in TQM?
2.How did the program undertaken at WFRMC reflect this strategic impetus?
3.What were the strengths and weaknesses of the TQM program as it was implemented here?