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In the face of increasing pressure to improve patient satisfaction, the health‐care industry must continue to seek improved methods to measure the effects of its continuous improvement efforts. While measurement instruments in this area abound, most are global in perspective and inflexible in form, sometimes leading to less than optimally germane outputs. Patient satisfaction information is critically important to the health‐care provider, and this paper presents the results provided by an instrument that was locally designed to provide the most utile aggregation and presentation of patient satisfaction information for individual health‐care providers. These results provide substantial evidence to support the notion that local, rather than global, measurement instruments are needed to provide the most relevant and useful results when assessing patient satisfaction as part of a continuous improvement effort.

The purpose of this article is to present one example of how the strategies of total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement are being used by US health care providers to meet the challenges of the future.

This article presents an application utilizing the strategies of TQM and continual and rapid improvement in the area of assessing internal customer satisfaction in the health care arena. Satisfaction information concerning internal processes is critically important to the health care provider, and this article presents the development and application of an instrument designed to provide timely and relevant internal customer satisfaction information to individual health care providers. This provides information on problem identification and improvement opportunities for a world‐class continuous improvement program.

The article finds that customer satisfaction is increasingly being recognized as an appropriate measure for determining how well a particular organization is accomplishing its mission and, while customer satisfaction surveys provide valuable information and may be used to improve the entire operation, they provide limited insight into the details of the inner workings of each cost center. Each of the measures discussed in this article is potentially equally insightful and may provide more directly usable information when applied to internal customers.

This article provides useful information on providing customer satisfaction in the health care arena.

The health care industry can expect an expanding need to measure and report the quality of performance and related outcomes. This article presents a flexible application operationalizing the strategies of total quality management and continual and rapid improvement in the area of assessing patient satisfaction. Mountain States Health Alliance established seven strategic criteria for the Outcomes Assessment Strategy and Information System (OASIS) design based on its own strategic initiatives and quality improvement principals. These initiatives are supported by the software application referred to as ContAct. Substantial process improvements have resulted. As pressures from stakeholders continue to mount, it will become increasingly important that patient satisfaction information be used to improve processes. The system presented provides one piece of an overall approach that will result in a rise to world‐class status for the health care industry.

To make better use of its human resource assets, this aerospace company embarked on a major reorganization of operations and introduced the concept of autonomous work teams.

Investigates the relationships between just‐in‐time (JIT) success and the extent of company‐supplier partnership development, in the context of geographical proximity, communication/ information linkages and usage of certification programmes, using a multi‐faceted measure of JIT success. Analyses data from 130 businesses to test five research hypotheses. Finds that supplier certification programmes and availability of information exchange systems between the firm and its suppliers are significantly better predictors of JIT success than geographical proximity of suppliers. Discusses the managerial implications of these findings and offers recommendations.

Argues that US health care is in a state of crisis. Escalating costs account for 13 per cent of GNP, making health care the third largest industry in the USA, and spending is expected to increase. Claims health‐care providers need to control rising costs, improve productivity and flexibility, adopt appropriate technologies, and maintain competitive levels of quality and value. States that TQM may provide an environment that will focus on quality of patient care and continuous quality improvement at all levels of the organization including the governing body, the administrative, managerial, and clinical areas. Any new national or state health‐care plan will force providers to be more efficient while maintaining quality standards. Concludes that it will be strategically imperative that health‐care providers ranging from family physicians to major medical centres and suppliers ranging from laboratories to pharmaceutical firms establish methods for making rapid continuous improvement and total quality management the cornerstone of the strategic planning process.

Industrial organizations have employed the process of strategic management in their attempts to cope effectively with global competitive pressures, while attempting to build and maintain competitive advantage. With health‐care organizations presently trying to cope with an increasingly turbulent environment created by the uncertainty as to pending legislation and anticipated reform, the need for such organizational strategic planning is apparent. Presents and discusses a methodology for adapting a business‐oriented model of strategic planning to health care.