Maintaining the integrity of products and services occurs through quality management (QM). An integral component of QM is the process of avoiding or controlling risk (Figure 2). QM recognizes that organizational problems are a result of systems or process failures, not human resources or customers. QM may serve as a distinct unit on an organizational chart, or its various functions can be split among a company’s departments. The actual implementation of QM must be integrated throughout the company for it to serve its purpose;it must be more than a Band-Aid approach.
Consumer/business relationships are based upon trust and loyalty: The customer’s trust in the company’s product and support services, andthe facility’s loyalty in meeting and serving its members.
Defining quality. Definitions of quality are highly variable, and relevant to various issues, situations and factors. Since fitness professionals offer intangible products and services, the concept of quality can be difficult. Given an absence of industry “standards,” or definitions of quality specific to relevantissues, you must make determinations for yourself.
Quality planning. For quality planning, youmust assess your current strategies and procedures, as well as those required to meet your objectives. Plan for quality as though it were a sports performance goal — through periodization. Develop the infrastructure for QM so that it’s applicable for and in support of all facility operations. Quality planning (QP) is the foundation for the QM system. Objectives for QP include the following:
1. Defining quality as it is relevant for yourfacility.
2. Deciding how quality will be applied to products and services; technical work performed or information provided to members; staff; the member’s solo experience on thepremises; interpersonal relations between the members and staff; operational processes and procedures; and more.
3.Deciding how quality will be monitored and measured, andidentifying the data collection processes.
4. Developing quality indices, or measures of performance specific to all considerations for quality, to identify if quality has been achieved (i.e., indicators, benchmarks).
5. Integrating all developments of the QP function; developing an infrastructure for the QM system; and making determinations for how the functions of quality assurance and improvement will be carried out after QP is completed.
6. Creating standards or minimum requirements for quality assurance that arespecific to functions within the facility’s major departments.
7. Developingan actual plan and itsimplemention.
You will also need to determine what your regulatory requirements are, and build those details into yourQP, such as adherence to OSHA, county and state health departments (if you have a juice bar), theAmerican Disabilities Act, etc.
Quality assessment. If the planning function is the foundation for the QM system, the assessment or assurance function is the building function. Quality assessment (QA) assesses and assures quality specific to the plan developed and implemented. QA occurs via monitoring and measuring, through theuse of indices that serve as “flags.” Indices that signify a lapse in quality must be collected and measured. This serves to identify trends and patterns, plus topotentially head-off litigious events. In some cases, especially when serving high-risk populations, a single event can be a major quality deviation and present risk for litigation.
Quality improvement. The goal for quality improvement (QI) is to implement any additional strategies for ensuring quality or minimizing risk. Data that leads to identification and development of QI strategies is collected through the QA function. QI is the easiest link in the QM chain, because it simply takes information from the QA function and integrates it with the existing quality plan. For quality management to be efficient, however, quality improvement must be continuous.