Quality management in health care from the view-point of the German Federal Ministry of Health

A recent analysis of quality assurance measures used by German health care providers, which was conducted by order of the German Federal Ministry of Health, documented a large heterogeneity of methods, a missing validation for most measures, and the lack of a unifying framework. The ''Total Quality Management'' strategy, which originally was developed for industrial purposes, may provide such a unifying framework if adapted to the health care setting. Therefore, the German Federal Ministry of Health encourages the introduction of the ''Total Quality Management'' philosophy into the German health care system and will support this process by providing educational material. Since in Germany economic factors have an increasing impact on health care providers, which absolutely is intended by the legislative power, the application of ''Total Quality Management'' strategies will not only become a major competitive factor for providers, but may also improve patient outcome and satisfaction and reduce resource consumption.