The American General Hospital as a Complex Social System

Based on data from and about the medical, nursing, and administrative staffs in a probability sample of general hospitals, involving 41 institutions and some 2,400 respondents, certain aspects of the hospital social system are examined in each of the following basic problem-areas: organizational and member goal attainment; availability and allocation of organizational resources; organizational coordination; social integration; intraorganizational strain; and organizational adaptation. These areas are examined separately and in relation to one another, as a basis for understanding and assessing the overall effectiveness of the hospital as a complex social organization. Hospital effectiveness is viewed in the context of open system theory, as a joint function of the relative success with which the organization handles its problems in these key areas. Findings concerning a number of social-psychological variables in each area are presented and discussed, with emphasis on the interdependence of the areas and on organizational issues and implications. The results show some of the basic strengths and weaknesses of the system. Important differences associated with hospital size and affiliation are also discussed to illustrate the typical profile of the American general hospital and significant variations from it. Similarly, differences among the principal groups in the system are presented, where appropriate. Finally, promising directions for future organizational research in the hospital field are briefly presented.     

An analysis of the adoption of managerial innovation: cost accounting systems in hospitals.

The adoption of new medical technologies has received significant attention in the hospital industry, in part, because of its observed relation to hospital cost increases. However, few comprehensive studies exist regarding the adoption of non-medical technologies in the hospital setting. This paper develops and tests a model of the adoption of a managerial innovation, new to the hospital industry, that of cost accounting systems based upon standard costs. The conceptual model hypothesizes that four organizational context factors (size, complexity, ownership and slack resources) and two environmental factors (payor mix and interorganizational dependency) influence hospital adoption of cost accounting systems. Based on responses to a mail survey of hospitals in the Chicago area and AHA annual survey information for 1986, a sample of 92 hospitals was analyzed. Greater hospital size, complexity, slack resources, and interorganizational dependency all were associated with adoption. Payor mix had no significant influence and the hospital ownership variables had a mixed influence. The logistic regression model was significant overall and explained over 15% of the variance in the adoption decision.     

高质量发展背景下公立医院行政领导人员职业化影响机制研究

目的 将人力资源管理理论引入公立医院行政领导职业化发展的探索中,完善公立医院行政领导人员职业化影响机制,丰富公立医院行政领导职业化理论内涵。方法 以北京市属21家三级医院为例,共收集731份调查问卷,利用定性比较分析方法(QCA),探究影响医院职业化管理水平条件变量的独立作用和交互作用。结果 公立医院职业化管理水平的影响模式可以概括为内在团队主导模式和综合配合主导模式。结论 从医院管理团队着手提高医院职业化管理水平更为有效,需健全分层分类培训体系,优化行政领导团队结构,营造有利于可持续发展的工作氛围等。     

医院院长职业化建设:国际经验、国内现状与政策建议

总结了欧美、日本等国家医院院长职业化建设的经验,根据上海地区样本机构调查数据和有关文献资料,分析了我国医院院长职业化建设方面存在的问题,从建立和完善医院管理学科体系、开展学历教育和岗位培训、规范医院院长岗位准入标准、设立医院管理技术职称序列、健全医院院长绩效考核评价制度、完善医院领导干部轮岗交流机制、实现医院领导干部管理法制化等方面提出了政策建议.     

Organizational rationality,performance, and social responsibility: results from the hospital industry

Drawing on stakeholder theory and Weber's distinction between formal and substantive rationality, we posit that: (1) for-profit organizations manage stakeholders in ways that result in the organization being more efficient and less socially responsible than organizations that are not as profit oriented, and (2) organizations with major corporate relationships that are not local manage stakeholders in a manner that results in the organization being more efficient and less socially responsible than organizations without such arrangements. We test these hypotheses with 1994 data on 4,705 of the nation's short-term general hospitals using two measures of hospital efficiency and four measures of social responsibility. Results confirm that for-profit hospitals and hospitals lacking local ties are managing stakeholder relationships in ways that increases the efficiency of these hospitals but decreases their social responsiveness. We conclude by speculating that organizational efficiency and social responsibility may be inversely related and then summarize some of the academic, managerial, and policy implications, with emphasis on the implications for stakeholder theory.     

Governing board structure, business strategy, and performance of acute care hospitals: a contingency perspective.

Contingency theory suggests that for a hospital governing board to be effective in taking on a more active role in strategic management, the board needs to be structured to complement the overall strategy of the organization. A survey study was conducted to examine the strategies of acute care hospitals as related to the structural characteristics of their governing boards. After controlling for organizational size and system membership, results indicated a significant relationship between the governing board structure of 109 acute care hospitals and their overall business strategy. Strategy also accounted for more of the variance in board structure than either organization size or system membership. Finally, the greater the match between board structure and hospital strategy, the stronger the hospitals' financial performance.     

Japanese hospitals--culture and competition: a study of ten hospitals

Japanese health care is characterized by a pluralistic system with a high degree of private producers. Central government regulates the prices and the financing system. All citizens are covered by a mandatory employment-based health insurance operating on a nonprofit basis. The consumer has a free choice of physician and hospital. A comparison between Japan, Sweden and some other countries shows significant dissimilarities in the length of stay, number of treatments per hospital bed and year and the staffing of hospitals. About 80 per cent of the hospitals and 94 per cent of the clinics are privately owned. The typical private hospital owned by a physician has less than 100 beds In this paper, data collected (1992/93) in an empirical study of Japanese hospitals and their leadership is presented. Also discussed are the hospitals' style of management, tools and strategies for competition and competences—personal and formal skills required of the leadership in the hospital There follows a study of ten hospitals, among which hospital directors and chief physicians were interviewed. Interviews are also made with key persons in the Ministry of Health and Welfare and other organizations in the health care field. The result is also analysed from a cultural perspective—‘what kind of impact does the Japanese culture have on the health care organization?’ and/or ‘what kind of sub-culture is developed in the Japanese hospitals’. Some comparisons are made with Sweden, USA, Canada and Germany. The different roles of the professions in the hospital are included in the study as well as the incentives for different kinds of strategies — specialization, growing in size, investments in new equipment, different kind of ownership and hospitals. Another issue discussed is the attempt to uncover whether there is an implicit distribution of specialities—silent agreements between hospitals, etc.     

A profile of U.S. hospital mergers

According to Modern Healthcare's Annual Report on Mergers and Acquisitions the number of hospital mergers has declined significantly since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This study evaluated market characteristics, organizational factors and the operational performance of these hospitals prior to merger. We found that merged hospitals were more likely to be located in markets with higher per capital income and higher HMO penetration. Merged hospitals were larger in size and had greater clinical complexity as measured by increased services. Finally, we found that merged hospitals had higher occupancy rates, lower return on assets (ROA), and older facilities. From a managerial perspective, merged hospitals display many of the characteristics of an organization in financial distress. From a policy standpoint, the decline in hospital mergers subsequent to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 may affect the long-term survivability of many U.S. hospitals.     

The comparison of health care systems through regional analysis: the case of hospital admissions in Belgium and The Netherlands

One of the problems in the international comparison of health care systems is the small number of units of analysis. Usually only a small number of systems is compared which makes cross-sectional statistical analysis impossible. The two obvious solutions to this problem--neither of which is generally feasible--are either to enlarge the number of systems being compared or to use time series on a small number of health care systems. Quite another solution is to study regional variations within and between a small number of systems. The number of regions has to be sufficiently large to make statistical analysis possible. This is the solution chosen in this article. The phenomenon which is central to our analysis is the number of hospital admissions per 1000 of the population. To explain variations in the hospital admission rate, it is hypothesized that there are a number of variables that have the same kind of influence on hospital admission rates in all western industrialized countries (such as the supply of hospital beds and the health status of the population). On the other hand there are determinants of regional variation in the number of admissions which either exert an influence dependent on the nature of the system, or are unique to a particular health care system. Concerning the first group of hypotheses (the general model), our analysis based on data for 1974 showed that the only variables to have a clear and equal influence on the regional variation in hospital admission rates in the Netherlands as well as in Belgium are the number of hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants and standardized mortality (an operationalization of the concept of health status). The influence of system-specific variables (the second group of hypotheses) has been analysed, taking the difference between the actual number of admissions and the number of admissions expected on the basis of the number of beds and mortality as the dependent variable. In the Netherlands, none of the variables appears to have a clear influence on the level of this ratio, whereas in Belgium there is a greater number of admissions than expected in regions with a higher birth-rate and a higher number of both general practitioners and specialists in the common disciplines (internal medicine, pediatrics, gynaecology) in relation to the total number of specialists.     

Hospital responses to a data-driven statewide quality improvement project

BACKGROUND: The overall success of any continuous quality improvement (CQI) project lies in the ability to measure changes resulting from the project and to show that changes have resulted n improved care. METHOD: A software tool was developed to categorize hospital responses and activities implemented by hospitals as a result of the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project CCP). Information was captured regarding the hospital's acceptance of data and the educational/interventional strategies implemented. Hospital size, number of acute myocardial infarction patients treated, indicator performances, and type of presentation given (on-site versus regional visit) was entered to allow analysis of factors affecting the response. RESULT: sixty-one of 107 hospitals responded to the peer review organization. Of those, 49% planned further educational activities and 75% planned to implement some form of CQI activity. Comparison of responses in relation to the type of presentation received suggested that on-site presentations are associated with higher response rates and more intense quality improvement efforts. This also could be attributed to other factors such as hospital size, teaching environment, or number of acute myocardial infarction patients treated. CONCLUSION: The system developed allowed us to collate hospital improvement efforts as a result of CCP. The system is limited in its ability to identify those activities taking place before CCP. Further development and refinement of the tool is warranted to document quality improvement efforts and determine best strategies for peer review organization intervention.     

Strategies for cutting hospital beds: the impact on patient service.

OBJECTIVE: To develop insights on the impact of size, average length of stay, variability, and organization of clinical services on the relationship between occupancy rates and delays for beds. DATA SOURCES: The primary data source was Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Secondary data were obtained from the United Hospital Fund of New York reflecting data from about 150 hospitals. STUDY DESIGN: Data from Beth Israel Deaconess on discharges and length of stay were analyzed and fit into appropriate queueing models to generate tables and graphs illustrating the relationship between the variables mentioned above and the relationship between occupancy levels and delays. In addition, specific issues of current concern to hospital administrators were analyzed, including the impact of consolidation of clinical services and utilizing hospital beds uniformly across seven days a week rather than five. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using target occupancy levels as the primary determinant of bed capacity is inadequate and may lead to excessive delays for beds. Also, attempts to reduce hospital beds by consolidation of different clinical services into single nursing units may be counterproductive. CONCLUSIONS: More sophisticated methodologies are needed to support decisions that involve bed capacity and organization in order to understand the impact on patient service.     

中医医院院长职业化程度及其影响因素分析

目的 了解中医医院院长的职业化程度及其影响因素，为决策者提供依据。方法 对样本中医医院院长进行深度访谈。结果 中医医院院长职业化程度良莠不齐，大多数院长职业化程度有待提高。导致职业化程度低的主要因素有院长绩效考核主体缺位和内容缺失、医院管理体制和干部任免任期制度以及卫生管理职称缺乏。建议 卫生主管部门积极协调政府有关部门，尽快出台卫生管理职称系列、院长的任职资格制度、卫生管理干部专职化制度等政策；加快研究和出台院长的绩效考核办法，加强在岗院长的管理知识培训，强化管理理念，推进职业化进程。     

Professional projects and institutional change in healthcare: the case of American dentistry

This paper combines resources from the organization studies and sociology literatures to advance understanding of institutional change processes in healthcare that emerge from the professionalization projects of occupations. Conceptually, we introduce a model that combines the 'archetype' approach to analyzing structural change with a framework for analyzing the agency of emergent professions. We then employ the model to frame a historical case analysis (1972-2009) of the highly contested process by which the occupation of dental hygiene in the US fought to introduce a new organizational form, the alternative practice hygiene (APH) archetype. This archetype challenges the traditional model (the dentist's office archetype) that is supported by the dominant dentistry profession. Our analysis contributes two main sets of empirical findings. First, we present a systematic comparison of the APH and Dentist's Office archetypes in terms of their belief systems, formal structures, agents, and policy implications (e.g., access to services). Second, we provide an account of the agency of dental hygienists' attempts to secure the APH model as part of their professionalization project.     

Multihospital System Membership and Patient Treatments, Expenditures, and Outcomes

Objective. To determine the relationship between hospital membership in systems and the treatments, expenditures, and outcomes of patients.
Data Sources. The Medicare Provider Analysis and Review dataset, for data on Medicare patients admitted to general medical-surgical hospitals between 1985 and 1998 with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI); the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, for data on hospitals.
Study Design. A multivariate regression analysis. An observation is a fee-for-service Medicare AMI patient admitted to a study hospital. Dependent variables include patient transfers, catheterizations, angioplasties or bypass surgeries, 90-day mortality, and Medicare expenditures. Independent variables include system participation, other admission hospital and patient traits, and hospital and year fixed effects. The five-part system definition incorporates the size and location of the index admission hospital and the size and distance of its partners.
Principal Findings. While the effects of multihospital system membership on patients are in general limited, patients initially admitted to small rural system hospitals that have big partners within 100 miles experience lower mortality rates than patients initially admitted to independent hospitals. Regression results show that to the extent system hospital patients experience differences in treatments and outcomes relative to patients of independent hospitals, these differences remain even after controlling for the admission hospital's capacity to provide cardiac services.
Conclusions. Multihospital system participation may affect AMI patient treatment and outcomes through factors other than cardiac service offerings. Additional investigation into the nature of these factors is warranted.     

Hospital management: Integrating the dual hierarchy?

Traditionally, hospitals are seen as dual hierarchies: in addition to the formal administrative pyramid, the professional medical system forms a second line of authority. Equally traditional, this poses substantial problems for hospital management. The present study reported in this article took place as part of a larger research project on Industrial Democracy in Europe (IDE-2), aimed at studying changes in industrial relations and internal relations in metal and insurance companies. In the Netherlands, this project was enlarged to include hospitals. A number of significant changes have taken place in the past decade in Dutch general hospitals. As a reaction to environmental changes, e.g. in legislation, planning and financing, organizational structures have shown interesting developments. Examples are an increased hospital size due to mergers, the emergence of mid-level management, divisionalization (inpatient vs outpatient wards), and integration of medical specialists in the organization. As a result, several changes in power positions have occurred, mainly at the strategic decision level: middle and top management have gained while the medical profession has lost some influence. The Works Council has established its position, and made a significant gain in influence on strategic decision making.     

院长职业化是管办分离模式下公立医院改革的关键

分析我国公立医院管办分离的背景,对北京和上海的改革特点进行比较分析,提出了公立医院在改革中的关键——院长职业化。同时,阐述院长职业化在改革中的具体实行方法和今后的趋势。     

Health technology assessment in Belgium

The Belgian healthcare system has a Bismarck-type compulsory health insurance, covering almost the entire population, combined with private provision of care. Providers are public health services, independent pharmacists, independent ambulatory care professionals, and hospitals and geriatric care facilities. Healthcare responsibilities are shared between the national Ministries of Public Health and Social Affairs, and the Dutch-, French-, and German-speaking Community Ministries of Health. The national ministries are responsible for sickness and disability insurance, financing, determination of accreditation criteria for hospitals and heavy medical care units, and construction of new hospitals. The six sickness and disability insurance funds are responsible for reimbursing health service benefits and paying disability benefits. The system's strength is that care is highly accessible and responsive to patients. However, the healthcare system's size remained relatively uncontrolled until recently, there is an excess supply of certain types of care, and there is a large number of small hospitals. The national government created a legal framework to modernize the insurance system to control budgetary deficits. Measures for reducing healthcare expenditures include regulating healthcare supply, healthcare evaluation, medical practice organization, and hospital budgets. The need to control healthcare facilities and quality of care in hospitals led to formal procedures for opening hospitals, acquiring expensive medical equipment, and developing highly specialized services. Reforms in payment and regulation are being considered. Health technology assessment (HTA) has played little part in the reforms so far. Belgium has no formal national program for HTA. The future of HTA in Belgium depends on a changing perception by providers and policy makers that health care needs a stronger scientific base.