Managerial Economics & Organizational Architecture 6th Edition by James Brickley , Clifford Smith ,Jerold Zimmerman

Exercise 1

According to a New York Times article,[2] LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City installed a computer in every hospital room in the mid-1980s. These computers replaced paper charts so everything the doctor or nurses did was entered into a database as it happened. A small number of patients get infections following surgery, which adds to the length of their hospital stay and ultimately to the cost of treating the patient. After several years, hospital personnel began using the computerized data to determine the best time to begin antibiotics for patients undergoing surgery. They found that by starting antibiotics a few hours before surgery, the rate of infections fell from 1.8 percent to 0.4 percent, saving the hospital about $9,000 per case. By using the computer system, the head of LDS's quality control program can improve quality and cut hospital costs.
Analyze the LDS quality control program in terms of basic TQM principles.