Faced with a global marketplace characterized by a growing competitiveness, and higher expectations from customers, organizations are more and more under increasing pressure to demonstrate their status as corporate suppliers with good quality management systems, good environmental initiatives, good safety policies, among other practices. To meet such expectations, organizations are increasingly adopting integrated management systems based on internationally recognized standards. Research suggests that integrating management systems may provide significant advantages to organizations. Do you think that the healthcare sector may also benefit from such strategies? Why should healthcare institutions think about such options? Do you know any research paper(s) focused on such questions?
The National Baldrige Quality Award Standard for Health Care is one set of standards for heath care organztions that has shown some positive benefits towards improving operations and achieving high performance benchmarks in patient care. See link for references: http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-120412.cfm#