Summary

GAO reviewed the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) implementation of total quality management (TQM). GAO found that: (1) most of the HHS installations had implemented various phases of TQM or had plans to implement TQM; (2) HHS increased its involvement in common TQM activities as TQM matured; (3) 52 percent of HHS installations reported positive benefits from TQM, and the remaining facilities believed it was too soon to judge TQM benefits; (4) operating and internal conditions improved with TQM maturity; (5) most of the barriers to TQM included a lack of sufficient information on how to use TQM tools and training on TQM concepts and theory, and employees not feeling empowered to make changes; and (6) barriers to TQM became less significant as TQM matured.