ALLIANT HEALTH SYSTEMS
ALLIANT HEALTH SYSTEMS : A VISION OF TOTAL QUALITY
Alliant’s quest for quality is unequivocal when one reads what Jim Petersdorf had to say about the health care industry
“To deliver value, hospitals would have to consider both cost and quality….”
And what his successor, Rod Wolford said about TQM :
“To make total quality management work, you need an overwhelming conviction that it is central to everything you do. I have this conviction…..”
For a strategy to be accepted , and to become successful, it needs not just the sponsorship but whole hearted involvement of the organization’s leadership. With two successive CEO’s contributing their might, one cannot doubt the robustness of Alliant’s TQM strategy.
It would be interesting to trace the sequence of events that led Alliant to opt for TQM
Alliant belonged to an industry sector which had to bear spiraling costs in the mid to late 1980’s. This coupled with federal plans like Medicare and Medicaid would provide no room to flourish.
Alliant, as an entity, was an amalgamation of Norton Hospital , Kosair children’s hospital and Methodist Evangelical Hospital. This led not just to unshared facilities but also to a mismatch of cultures. To quote one surgeon “they don’t refer to us. We don’t refer to them. There is a great deal of animosity”.
The need to address the impending fiscal challenge led the organization to explore the application of the TQM methodology.
Alliant did not jump onto to the TQM bandwagon as an ‘also ran’. TQM was close to their CEO Jim petersdorf’s heart. Mr. P, as he was popularly referred to read the works of Edwards Deming , Joseph Juran and Philip Crosby to educate himself about ‘quality’. He visited firms like Corning and IBM where TQM principles were being practiced. He then appointed Steve Williams, an experienced administrator as the Vice President of quality. Steve set up a working group of two nurses and a manager to devise the strategy for an organization wide quality
Alliant’s quest for quality is unequivocal when one reads what Jim Petersdorf had to say about the health care industry
“To deliver value, hospitals would have to consider both cost and quality….”
And what his successor, Rod Wolford said about TQM :
“To make total quality management work, you need an overwhelming conviction that it is central to everything you do. I have this conviction…..”
For a strategy to be accepted , and to become successful, it needs not just the sponsorship but whole hearted involvement of the organization’s leadership. With two successive CEO’s contributing their might, one cannot doubt the robustness of Alliant’s TQM strategy.
It would be interesting to trace the sequence of events that led Alliant to opt for TQM
Alliant belonged to an industry sector which had to bear spiraling costs in the mid to late 1980’s. This coupled with federal plans like Medicare and Medicaid would provide no room to flourish.
Alliant, as an entity, was an amalgamation of Norton Hospital , Kosair children’s hospital and Methodist Evangelical Hospital. This led not just to unshared facilities but also to a mismatch of cultures. To quote one surgeon “they don’t refer to us. We don’t refer to them. There is a great deal of animosity”.
The need to address the impending fiscal challenge led the organization to explore the application of the TQM methodology.
Alliant did not jump onto to the TQM bandwagon as an ‘also ran’. TQM was close to their CEO Jim petersdorf’s heart. Mr. P, as he was popularly referred to read the works of Edwards Deming , Joseph Juran and Philip Crosby to educate himself about ‘quality’. He visited firms like Corning and IBM where TQM principles were being practiced. He then appointed Steve Williams, an experienced administrator as the Vice President of quality. Steve set up a working group of two nurses and a manager to devise the strategy for an organization wide quality