Operations Research (OR), also called Operational Research in the United Kingdom (UK), uses various computational tools for solutions to complex problems within a system. It deals with challenges in planning, scheduling, forecasting, process analysis and decision analysis. It also addresses individual components of the system. The methodology used for decisions based upon stochastic (random) processes can also be adapted for the common general medical ward round. Operational Research techniques add speed, efficiency, quality and consistency to the documentation in the case notes, and reduces the time taken for ward rounds. There is obvious benefit to the individual patient. It also acts as a learning tool which can be audited, and lends itself to research questions.
Humans ; Medical Audit ; Operations Research ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; methods

The strategies and methods of the total quality management (TQM) need to applied in quality management of radiation therapy. We should improve the level of quality control and quality assurance in radiation therapy. By establishing quality control system in radiation therapy, standardization of radiation therapy workflow, strengthening quality control of devices and physical technique and paying attention to safety protection and staff training.
Quality Assurance, Health Care ; organization & administration ; Quality Control ; Radiotherapy ; Total Quality Management

The quality management processes used by industrial companies have become commonplace in the healthcare system and are proving successful in improving quality and controlling costs. The total quality management system is important for safe and efficiently run medical imaging. Quality management includes quality control, quality assurance, and continuous quality improvement in all aspects of medical imaging to improve the quality of healthcare. For quality improvement of medical imaging, medical imaging accreditation programs are being systematically implemented in many countries including Korea. Quality management in the medical imaging process will be effective within a system of cooperation among stakeholders and professionals. In this review, I describe the concept and basic definition of quality management in medical imaging and introduce quality management programs from countries outside Korea.
Accreditation ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnostic Imaging* ; Korea ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Quality Control ; Quality Improvement ; Quality of Health Care ; Total Quality Management

The health inspection should continuous renew and strengthen its quality and efficacy to contribute to implement successfully the strategy of people health protection and care in the period of 2001-2010, including content and subjects, method of inspection and discipline.
Delivery of Health Care ; Quality Assurance, Health Care

Comparative surgical audit to monitor quality of care should be performed with a risk-adjusted scoring system rather than using crude morbidity and mortality rates. A validated and widely applied risk adjusted scoring system, P-POSSUM (Portsmouth-Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality) methodology, was applied to a prospective series of predominantly general surgical patients at the Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching over a six months period. The patients were grouped into four risk groups. The observed mortality rates were not significantly different from predicted rates, showing that the quality of surgical care was at par with typical western series. The simplicity and advantages of this scoring system over other auditing tools are discussed. The P-POSSUM methodology could form the basis of local comparative surgical audit for assessment and maintenance of quality care.
Chi-Square Distribution ; Malaysia ; Medical Audit/*methods ; Prospective Studies ; *Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Surgical Procedures, Operative/*mortality

The dietary-regimen of the patients in hospitals has not had unified pattern. There were 4 factors influence the assurance of hygiene in drinking and eating of patients in hospitals: 1, Chef was not considered an occupation because of professional characteristics in hospital; 2, People who had mistakes must work in the nutrition department; 3, Equipments of the nutrition department were different from one to another; 4, Foods and clients.
Hygiene ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Diet

This paper focuses on issues needed to be clear towards the product quality supervision of medical devices in use. The life circle of medical devices, the supervision regarding its boundary, target, emphasis, basis and standards have been analyzed in turn. A clear and creative idea is also provided for theoretical exploration of the supervision on medical devices in use.
Materials Management, Hospital ; Quality Assurance, Health Care

ISO9000 quality management system (ISO9000QMS) emphasize on the customer-oriented, managers' leadership and all staff's joining, adopt the process method and system management, spread the taking facts as a basis to make decision and improve consistently, and establish win-win relation with the suppliers. So, the digital hospital can adopt the ISO9000QMS. In order to establish the ISO9000QMS, the digital hospital should: (1) Design integrally, including analyzing the operation procedure, clarifying the job duties, setting up the spreading team and setting the quality policy and objectives: (2) Learning the ISO9000 quality standards; (3) Drawing up the documents, including the quality manual, program files and operation guiding files; (4) Training according the documents; (5) Executing the quality standard, including the service quality auditing, quality record auditing and quality system auditing; (6) Improving continually. With the establishment of ISO900QMS, the digital hospital can appraise more accurately, analyze quality matters statistically and avoid the interference of artificial factors.
Hospital Administration ; legislation & jurisprudence ; standards ; Hospitals, Public ; legislation & jurisprudence ; standards ; Management Audit ; standards ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; organization & administration ; Quality Control ; Total Quality Management ; methods ; standards

This article expounds the quality assurance for the radiotherapy simulator. Emphasis is given to its necessities and the methods, and standards of regular examinations are illustrated for the aim of meeting the requirements of the quality assurance in radiotherapy by the WHO.
Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Quality Control ; Radiotherapy ; instrumentation

BACKGROUND: To prevent medically significant errors, hospital laboratories must perform thorough statistical quality control (QC) procedures. We surveyed the QC status of small laboratories and created new statistical QC software that they can easily use for improving QC. METHODS: A questionnaire on the status of external and internal QC was created and sent to clinics and hospitals with small-scale laboratories. We then created QC software that can be downloaded and installed for free. RESULTS: External quality assessments were performed in 32% of the clinics (22 of 66) and 52% of the hospitals (12 of 23). Seventy-three percent of all institutions (66 of 90) carried out an internal quality assessment based on their own guidelines, mostly using commercialized QC materials. However, only 52% of clinics and 23% of hospitals used their own acceptable range instead of the manufacturer's expected range. In addition, the proportion of manual QC management reached 52% in clinics and 82% in hospitals. The QC software we designed covers all the basic functions of statistical QC and aims to improve the quality of laboratories. CONCLUSIONS: We obtained basic data on the current status of external and internal QC in small-scale laboratories using this survey. Furthermore, we suggested that new QC software may actually help to improve QC of small laboratories.
Laboratories, Hospital* ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Quality Control*