Facilitators, Barriers, and Benefits of Quality Management Systems Implementation: Healthcare Experts’ Perspectives

Abstract

Quality Management System (QMS) has grown to be one of the most renowned quality techniques by applying various characteristics and quality philosophy dimensions. A QMS helps coordinate and direct an organization’s activities to meet customer and regulatory requirements and improve its effectiveness and efficiency continuously. QMSs are important in healthcare because they have derived higher performances and support business improvements. Despite the promising benefits of adopting QMSs in healthcare, many initiatives have reported difficulties during implementation or being unsatisfied with the resulting system. The inability to achieve the expected outcomes is often associated with the unsuccessful or problematic implementation. There is a lack of conceptual frameworks for success that ensure a complete understanding of the actual meaning of successful implementation in this field. To evaluate and strategically improve the QMSs’ efficiency, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive conceptual model that secure successful implementation, including an explicit definition of’ implementation success. This paper explores the opinions and insights of healthcare quality experts on the implementation of (QMS) in healthcare organizations. Qualitative research methodology is the main approach. Twelve healthcare quality experts participated in a 30–40 min—semi-structured interview. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Grounded Theory (GT) analysis was conducted to investigate the data collected during the interviews. The analysis revealed six areas of interest (categories): QMS definitions, implementation success, healthcare complexity, barriers, facilitators, and benefits. The categories emerged from data analysis and formed the conceptual framework. The proposed framework utilized facilitators of implementation to overcome any barriers and achieve the desired outcomes. The framework can be used to monitor key aspects in implementation success and apply mitigations strategies based on implementing outcomes. Overall proper application of the framework can increase the chances of successfully implementing QMS in healthcare.

Keywords:

• Quality Management Systems (QMS)
• Implementation Success
• Healthcare
• Qualitative Analysis
• Grounded Theory (GT)

EMJ Focus Areas:

• Organization Development & Change
• Organization & Work System Design
• Systems Engineering

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mustafa Rawshdeh

Mustafa Rawshdeh is an assistant professor in the industrial engineering and department at Hashemite University. His research is in Management Systems Engineering with a focus on Quality Management. His research covers investigating the implementation and function of management systems, such as critical success factors, with a particular interest in how these systems function in critical environments such as in healthcare. He is an active member of the American Society for Quality.

Heather Keathley

Heather Keathley is an assistant professor in the industrial engineering and management systems department at the University of Central Florida. Her research is in Management Systems Engineering with a focus on organizational change and transformation. This includes investigating the implementation and function of management systems, such as organizational performance measurement systems, with a particular interest in how these systems function in critical environments such as in the healthcare and defence sectors.

Shahed Obeidat

Shahed Obeidat is an assistant professor in the mechanical and industrial engineering department at the Applied Science Private University. She started her academic path in Jordan University of Science and Technology where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering back in 2016. She was awarded the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt and ASQ Student Chapter Officer Award at the University of Central Florida. Her research work focuses on subjects as human factors, ergonomics, Quality, and safety management.

Raed Al Athamneh

Raed Al Athamneh is currently an assistant professor and an assistant dean at the deanship of academic development and international outreach at The Hashemite University. He received the bachelors degree in industrial engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan in 2009 and the masters degree from University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan in 2015. He completed masters and Ph.D. degrees in industrial systems engineering from Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA in 2018 and 2020, respectively. His research interests include reliability modelling, and fatigue analysis, microelectronic reliability and optimization in manufacturing and service systems.

Mumen Rababah

Mumen Rababah is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at The Hashemite University, Az Zarqa, Jordan. His research interests include simulation, supply chain and parcel delivery, and data science. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Auburn University and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in industrial engineering all from Jordan University of Science and Technology.

Sandy Furterer

Sandy Furterer is a Professor of Practice in the Integrated Systems Engineering Department. She applied Lean Six Sigma, Systems Engineering, and Engineering Management tools in healthcare, banking, retail, higher education and other service industries, and achieved the level of Vice President in several banking institutions. She previously managed the Enterprise Performance Excellence center in a healthcare system. She is a Fellow in the American Society for Quality (ASQ).