국제적 품질인증 과정을 통한 의료서비스의 총체적 품질관리: 세브란스병원 사례

Getting prepared to successfully compete in the Korean healthcare service industry, which is soon to be open to the global competitors, the top management team at Severance Hospital has been diligently sketching out concrete plans to accomplish its vision to become a world’s premiere healthcare service provider. In the process, the realizes the essential need for Severance to be certified by a globally recognized healthcare service quality certification program and decides to try for JCI(Joint Commission International) certification. In order to be certified by JCI, which issues a certification only when all of its over 1,000 requirements are satisfactorily fulfilled, it was essential for Severance to adopt and implement total quality management(TQM) approaches. TQM is a holistic quality management approach towards the goal of customer satisfaction. Accomplishing the goal of TQM activities is not easy due to its broad scope, fundamental changes it requires in the organizational culture and active participation of and cooperation from every member of the organization. This case introduces and describes the steps and outcomes of the TQM approach Severance Hospital took and accomplished in the process of acquiring the certification from JCI. Specifically, this case suggests possible strategies and tactics that can be used to successfully implement organizational and operational changes by describing the challenges, tasks and solutions Severance faced, handled and tried in each critical TQM area such as top management commitment, organizational structure, employee participation, inter-departmental cooperation, employee training and education, and continuous improvement.