Definition Please, Q?

A colleague approached me in the hallway, yesterday, and asked if I could define "Quality." Brilliant! This is the best question that I have been asked since the new year.

At the end of the day, do we all agree on the same definition? How can you improve what you cannot define? How can one ask others to join in the effort, if one cannot articulate the product?

Webster's Dictionary defines Quality as: having a high degree of excellence; superiority of kind.

The colleague and I went on to have a spontaneous 15 minute chat about Quality, and its application to the hospital setting. A synthesis of my response:

• Quality is not a process, but rather an end product. The product should be engineered to meet the voice of the customer (VOC). In a hospital, there are many customers and "voices" converging simultaneously on care delivery, each day, at any one time. For example, customers include: patients, patients' families, nurses, physicians, and Medicare to name a few. However, if we position the patient as the primary customer, then our work product or our "Quality" must be appropriately designed, tested, and continuously improved to meet expectations. Keep in mind customer expectations may evolve over time.

• A common statement utilized in the industry is: ensuring the right patient, gets the right care, at that right time. Well, if this statement reflects the expectations of the patient and the healthcare industry (an advocate for the patient) then quality professionals need to work to design processes and systems that yield a favorable and reliable product = quality. When not met, the organization yields defects, waste, or poor quality.

• Therefore, all service departments (including information technology, environmental services, social services, materials management, to name a few) contribute to the processes which in turn yield . . . Quality. It is everyone's principle business objective.