Customer convergence: patients, physicians, and employees share in the experience and evaluation of healthcare quality

This article explores the interrelationships between three categories of service quality in healthcare delivery organizations: patient, employee, and physician satisfaction. Using the largest and most representative national databases available, the study compares the evaluations of hospital care by more than 2 million patients, 150,000 employees, and 40,000 physicians. The results confirm the relationship connecting employees' satisfaction and loyalty to their patients' satisfaction and loyalty. Patients' satisfaction and loyalty were also strongly associated with medical staff physicians' evaluations of overall satisfaction and loyalty to the hospital. Similarly, hospital employees' satisfaction and loyalty were related to the medical staff physicians' satisfaction with and loyalty to the hospital. Based upon the strength of the interrelationships, individual measures and subscales can serve as leverage points for improving linked outcomes. Patients, physicians, and employees, the three co-creators of health, agree on the evaluation of the quality of that service experience. The results demonstrate that promoting patient-centeredness, enhancing medical staff relations, and improving the satisfaction and loyalty of employees are not necessarily three separate activities in competition for hospital resources and marketing leadership attention.     

Hospital malnutrition: prevalence, identification and impact on patients and the healthcare system

Malnutrition is a debilitating and highly prevalent condition in the acute hospital setting, with Australian and international studies reporting rates of approximately 40%. Malnutrition is associated with many adverse outcomes including depression of the immune system, impaired wound healing, muscle wasting, longer lengths of hospital stay, higher treatment costs and increased mortality. Referral rates for dietetic assessment and treatment of malnourished patients have proven to be suboptimal, thereby increasing the likelihood of developing such aforementioned complications. Nutrition risk screening using a validated tool is a simple technique to rapidly identify patients at risk of malnutrition, and provides a basis for prompt dietetic referrals. In Australia, nutrition screening upon hospital admission is not mandatory, which is of concern knowing that malnutrition remains under-reported and often poorly documented. Unidentified malnutrition not only heightens the risk of adverse complications for patients, but can potentially result in foregone reimbursements to the hospital through casemix-based funding schemes. It is strongly recommended that mandatory nutrition screening be widely adopted in line with published best-practice guidelines to effectively target and reduce the incidence of hospital malnutrition.     

美国卫生体系面临的挑战及对中国的启示

本文系统分析了美国卫生体系面临的挑战及其原因。文章认为美国卫生体系目前存在诸多挑战:卫生支出大幅增加、医疗服务利用不足与过度并存、健康水平低于大多数发达国家、基层医疗机构全科医生数量明显不足等。而国家立法的失误、卫生管理系统不够完善等是造成美国卫生体系面临众多挑战的主要原因。吸取上述美国的历史教训,结合中国国情,提出以下启示:应保障人人享有卫生保健的基本权利;重视和发挥政府以及基层医疗机构的作用;加强全科医生队伍建设;改革支付方式,控制医疗费用的增长;加强立法,合理处理医疗事故和纠纷。