Quality understanding in health sector.

The aim of this study is to examine the quality understanding of health personnel working in the health sector in terms of different variables. The population of the study is the health personnel working in the Health Directorate of Bitlis between January and July 2009. Total Quality Management Scale was used to obtain the research data. Total Quality Management Scale The TQM scale, which contains 28 statements regarding the planning, implementation and success of TQM, was established by A.F. Al-Assaf and Steven J. Gentling. The data obtained in the study were entered into SPSS 20.0 statistical package program and the data were analyzed with package program. Kolmogorov-Smirnov analysis was used to determine whether TQM perception level and sub-dimensions show normal distribution. Since the data did not show normal distribution, non-parametric test was applied. Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the participants' gender, marital status, educational status, age, title, duration of service in the institution, and duration of service in the profession and perception scores and sub-dimensions of TQM. Kruskall-Wallis test was used to determine the difference between groups of three and more than three. Correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the TQM scale and its sub-dimensions. In statistical analysis, the level of significance was determined as 0.05. As a result of the study, it was determined that there is no statistically significant relationship between health care workers' gender, marital status, age, education level, working year in public sector, occupation year and title variables and quality perceptions. In the study, it was also xii determined that the health personnel believed in the quality system practices in the hospitals and that the managers of the health institutions believed in the quality system practices, but they were undecided about taking the role of managers in these practices. Key Words:Health, Hospital, Health Personnel, Quality, Total Quality Management