Abstract

Since the Institute of Medicine's report in the USA in 1999 and the Baker–Norton report in Canada in 2004, academics have studied quality in areas such as governance, process improvement, measurement, patient engagement, physician and staff engagement and finance. Few, however, have offered a formal definition for their area or integrated each area's underlying assumptions to offer a shared definition of quality. This paper summarizes selected literature in each area, analyzes their contributions and compares common strands between each area to build a single integrated definition of health quality management which managers can apply in their health setting.