Health care management review
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Health Care Manage Rev · Jan 2009
Intrasectoral variation in mission and values: the case of the Catholic health systems.
Catholic health systems represent a unique sector of nonprofit health care delivery organizations because they must be accountable to institutional pressures of the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to responsiveness to market pressures. Mission statements and values are purported to be the driving force of Catholic institutional identity. Central to the understanding of the Catholic health care delivery sector is the exploration of variation in mission and values statements across the homogeneous field of organizations. ⋯ Management implications include the consideration of word relationships developing and constructing mission and values statements to form the framework for strategic vision and management decision making, to assess potential partnership arrangements based on expressed mission statements and values, and to use in executing due diligence in mergers and partnerships.
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Health Care Manage Rev · Jan 2009
Hospital innovativeness and organizational performance: evidence from English public acute care.
Hospitals around the world dedicate increasing attention and resources to innovation. However, surprisingly little is known about the nature of hospital innovativeness and its relationship with organizational performance. Given both the specific characteristics of the hospital sector and the rather mixed evidence from other industries, a positive innovation-performance link should not be taken for granted but requires empirical examination. ⋯ Hospitals investing in innovation-generating activities might find their efforts well rewarded in terms of tangible clinical performance improvements. However, to achieve measurable financial benefits, numerous hospitals have yet to discover and capture the commercial value of some of their innovations-a challenging task that requires a holistic innovation management and an effective network of complementary partners.
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Health Care Manage Rev · Oct 2008
Consensus guidelines: improving the delivery of clinical preventive services.
Medical directors from the largest competing health plans in the state came together in a noncompetitive way to collaborate on improving the delivery of clinical preventive service (CPS) among their provider base. They identified one consistent set of CPS guidelines based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, the health plan consensus guidelines (HPCG), that they could endorse as priority for guideline implementation. ⋯ A consistent set of CPS guidelines provided by competing health plans can improve the delivery of CPS among contracted health plan clinicians. This approach provides a template for competing health plans nationwide to come to consensus on guidelines that support clinicians in the delivery of CPS ().
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Health Care Manage Rev · Oct 2008
Hospital ethical climate and teamwork in acute care: the moderating role of leaders.
Health care delivery teams have received much attention in recent years from researchers and practitioners. Recent empirical research has demonstrated that objective and subjective outcomes tend to be improved when care teams function smoothly and efficiently. However, little is known about how the work environment, or care context, influences team processes that lead to better outcomes. ⋯ Although a benevolent ethical climate appears to be associated with effective teamwork, it appears that the proximate continuous quality improvement behaviors exhibited by leaders have a significant impact as well, above and beyond the climate. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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Health Care Manage Rev · Oct 2008
Structural and process factors affecting the implementation of antimicrobial resistance prevention and control strategies in U.S. hospitals.
To address increases in the incidence of infection with antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposed two sets of strategies to (a) optimize antibiotic use and (b) prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance and control transmission. However, little is known about the implementation of these strategies. ⋯ Formalization and standardization may eliminate staff role conflict, whereas centralized authority may minimize ambiguity. Culture and communication likely promote internal trust, whereas information technology use helps integrate and support these organizational processes. These findings suggest concrete strategies for evaluating current capabilities to implement effective practices and foster and sustain a culture of patient safety.