Purpose of QCC
After reviewing the empirical data of QCC activities appeared in the literatures available, it
was discovered that three approaches dominated in the 24 literatures: process and
administration, cost management, and clinical and medical problem solution (see Table 1). First,
most of the QCC activities were focused on process and administration management, including
process analysis, process improvement, performance appraisal, and waiting time improvement.
It is noted that 5 of 17 literatures were concerned about reducing the waiting time. According to
Liao & Hsu (1997), most patients’ compliants came from waiting time. Second, medical error
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became a very important issue in hospitals and health care industries. Therefore, quality
control circles activities could help medical team members review the medical problems and
develop methods to correct the medical and clinical errors. Lastly, in 5 articles we found that
most of the QCC methods could figure out the fundamental clinical problems in the process of
patient caring and treatment, including patient’s health promotion program improvement,
intensive care unit infection rate and hospital nosocominal infection problem reduction, and
physicians and nurses malpractice improvement.