The impact of quality management on income of operating theatre in a hospital: brief report

Hospitals are dealing with unlimited demands and limited resources. Hospital managers should use appropriate strategies to improve quality of services, enhance patients’ satisfaction and increase financial resources. This study aimed to examine the impact of quality management.
A participatory action research was used for the intervention on income of operating theatre in Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, between March and September 2014. A quality improvement team was established and improved operational processes of the operating theatre department of the hospital using Mosadeghrad’s ten-step quality management model. The quality improvement team standardized processes, identified goals for the processes and improved them until achieved the goals. Accordingly, an action plan was developed and implemented for increasing the income of the operating theatre department. Income data of the operating theatre department were obtained for a 6-month period in 2014, and were compared with a control 6-month period in 2013.
Implementing quality management increased the number of surgeries by 14.96 percent, decreased cancelled surgeries by 14.6 percent and reduced bill deductions imposed by health insurance companies by 44.9 percent. As a result, the operation theatre department income has increased by 68.8 percent (P=0.028). Some of solutions used for increasing the income were as standardizing and improving working processes, removing unnecessary activities, empowering staff; increasing department’s working hours, on time visit of patients by doctors and surgeons, reducing surgery cancellations, increasing number of patients, reducing deductions applied by the health insurance companies and training staff and patients.
Implementing an appropriate quality management model appropriately helps improve quality of services and enhance hospital departments’ income.