1Doctoral Research Scholar, Saveetha University, Saveetha School of Management, Thiruverkkadu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
2Professor, School of Management Studies, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu, India
Online published on 21 August, 2017.
The Healthcare Industries in India is poised for phenomenal growth in the years to come. This growth prediction is well supported by the Government of India's initiative “Make in India” philosophy towards encouraging the domestic manufacturers and service providers to become globally competitive with their innovative approach. Though the demand for healthcare related services are expected to grow many fold, the expectations from the customers are very specific on affordable cost for quality healthcare services and timely response. The optimal cost of healthcare services can only be achieved through constant innovation of new process practices on healthcare business and continuous re-engineering of existing non-value added activities. Manufacturing industries have grown well on this approach with the help of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles besides achieving tangible results and high customer satisfaction. However, healthcare industries have not implemented TQM meticulously, unlike manufacturing industries and failed to pass on resulting benefits to the customers. This research paper has reviewed the published literatures on TQM implementation practices in Healthcare and Medical Devices servicing industries over 30 years to identify the imminent research areas. The literature review has identified, specific framework for Healthcare Industries TQM, Medical Devices Regulatory Compliance and estimation of productivity in service sectors as areas for future research work. Also, from the review of literature it was evident that National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL), National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare services (NABH) and ISO 13485 certification for Medical Devices Servicing Industries are currently used to lay basic systems, which are highly inadequate to make healthcare services at affordable cost to meet the expectations of general public.
TQM, Healthcare, Regulatory Compliance, Medical Devices, Service Productivity, NABL, NABH, ISO 13485
