The EFQM management model for TQM applied to laboratory medicine

Abstract

The EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model offers a structure to describe and characterize one’s organization and allows the user to adapt the model to a great extent to the local working environment. Using five organization oriented enablers and four result oriented focused criteria, any organization, or substantial part of it, can be characterized. This accounts certainly for a medical laboratory in a hospital setting. The model tries to encourage practical usefulness and self-guidance, continuous improvement in a natural, stepwise way, and change management focused on the positive things within the organization. Application leads to consciousness of the quality of the entire operation, diagnoses, and advises for quality improvement and managerial control, i.e., through indicators. As the work of Islin and Thystrup illustrated, the EFQM model can be very elegantly and effectively applied to medical laboratories [1]. This paper is a compilation of nine lectures given in sequence to elaborate on each of the nine EFQM criteria. The following compilation explores the possibilities of using in a dedicated laboratory service this general quality management model by each of the criteria.