ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the quality in managed care, but whether it is in managed care or not, quality as a concept is implemented in the same manner and is practiced in the same fashion in any setting. Health care quality, in general, focuses on the concept that health care has three major cornerstones; quality, access, and cost. All quality concepts, when properly applied should ensure that services rendered in an organization are quality services and that outcomes are quality outcomes. Total quality, in particular total quality management (TQM), originally was introduced by certain quality experts in Japan before it was “imported” to the United States. Returning to health care, several events occurred before organizations started adopting TQM or quality improvement principles. TQM did not become a known entity in health care until the late 1980s. It primarily was a business management practice somewhat foreign to health care.
