From quality assurance to total quality management. Experiences in qualityassurance

The realization of internal and external surgical quality assurance is natu ral for hospital physicians. External influences on the hospital and a chan ged understanding of organisation demand a development of classical quality assurance. The primary aim is a patient orientated quality assurance relat ed to the medical benefits and the patient individual needs. The active cre ation and establishing of functional organisation process and interprofessi onal and interdisciplinary structures in hospital setting is a requirement of time.