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The quality approach, utilizing continuous improvement processes, is widely recognized as a vehicle for better outcomes in health care. In Mongolia, quality health systems have historically been poorly developed. Within the context of overall health reform, Mongolia has been emphasizing the development of quality systems to improve management, efficiency and clinical outcomes and processes. Mongolia has established a framework for quality assurance with the central Ministry of Health taking a lead role in developing and promulgating materials and organizing training. The focus has been on creating a governing system for quality in the health system with processes instituted at the hospital level and upwards in the health structure. In addition, the Mongolian framework has developed a range of indicators to guide the quality process. The commitment to quality is an integral part of comprehensive reform of the health sector in Mongolia and the principles of the quality approach – continuous improvement, customer focus, involvement of stakeholders, and among others – are currently being implemented across the health sector.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of total quality management (TQM) practices implemented in Palestinian hospitals and their relationship to organizational performance using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.

A survey of 51 hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine was conducted in order to test the validity and reliability of TQM constructs and their relationship to organizational performance.

The results showed that TQM constructs used in this study are positively related to hospital performance and for the most part the relationship was significant; they were capable of explaining a significant portion of variance in performance. Three elements were found to be strongly significant predictors of performance- people management, process management, and information and analysis.

Although hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip were excluded from the study, this research promotes critical management practices that help channeling organization resources into areas aimed at improving quality and performance.

The study showed that there are certain areas where administrators or managers need to focus on should they aspire for better performance. The constructs used in this study can be used to assess the implementation of quality practices and highlight areas for movement.

This paper provided practitioners, administrators, and academics with a fresh perspective on quality management practices and their impact on organizational performance. It also served as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

This paper aims to provide an assessment of the quality of management practices and implementation in hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Criteria.

Based on the MBNQA Criteria, a survey of 51 hospitals was conducted using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather data. Data were analyzed and compared across all administrative types of hospitals using the MBNQA points system.

The results show that the performance of non-governmental organizations and private hospitals was superior with respect to all other administrative types. A closer look at the results show that all hospitals exhibit areas of concern such as human resource focus, information and analysis, as well as performance results.

Despite the exclusion of hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip, this research promotes critical management practices aimed at improving quality of management practices and their subsequent implementation in the surveyed hospitals.

The MBNQA Criteria, as well as other quality assessment tools, can be used to measure the various activities of hospitals and identify competencies and weaknesses in a tangible manner to improve hospital performance.

This paper presents a fresh perspective on the quality management issues in Palestinian hospitals to practitioners, administrators and academics using the MBNQA Criteria. Also, it serves as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of total quality management (TQM) implementation in Palestinian governmental and non-governmental hospitals using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework.

The study is based on collecting data using a survey questionnaire that was designed according to the MBNQA criteria. In total, 363 questionnaires from governmental and non-governmental hospitals operating in Gaza Strip were analyzed to assess the level of TQM implementation level in all hospitals (governmental and non-governmental).

The main results of this study indicate that Palestinian hospitals operating in Gaza Strip perform at a relatively acceptable level. Comparing results shows that the performance of non-governmental hospitals is better with higher degree of TQM implementation than the governmental hospitals. Detailed analysis identifies improvement opportunities-related specific aspects of the human resources focus and the performance results.

Although this study has collected data from one Palestinian Territory, the Gaza Strip, it still identifies the critical factors and practices for TQM implementation within the Palestinian healthcare organizations to improve performance.

This paper suggests that business excellence models such as the MBNQA criteria can be used to assess the level of implementation of quality practices and identify the strengths and weaknesses to improve the quality of service delivery, processes, and performance of hospitals.

Despite the widespread use of TQM in the developed countries, little attention has been placed to implement and assess the quality initiatives by organizations in the developing countries and even fewer in low-income Arab countries (Aamer et al., 2017; Øvretveit and Al Serouri, 2006). In addition, a very few number of studies in reference to the assessment of TQM implementation in the Palestinian context, in general, and in healthcare organizations, in particular, highlight the need for this study. To move the field in that direction, the goal of this research was to assess the level of TQM implementation in the healthcare organizations (mainly hospitals) in Gaza Strip (one of the least fortunate areas of the Palestinian-occupied territories) where no prior similar research studies could be found. Therefore, this study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by providing empirical assessment of TQM level of implementation in Gaza Strip hospitals.