An empirical comparison between the board's strategic role in nonprofit hospitals and in for-profit industrial firms.
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As the health care environment becomes more competitive, nonprofit hospitals are under pressure to adopt for-profit business practices. Based on an extensive field study, this research examines the central issue of organizational governance by comparing the strategic roles of nonprofit hospital boards with for-profit industrial boards. The results show that nonprofit hospital boards are generally more involved in the strategic decision process than their for-profit counterparts. If this governance activity is seen as desirable, hospital boards should exercise caution in emulating for-profit board practices. (+info)
What do hospital decision-makers in Ontario, Canada, have to say about the fairness of priority setting in their institutions?
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BACKGROUND: Priority setting, also known as rationing or resource allocation, occurs at all levels of every health care system. Daniels and Sabin have proposed a framework for priority setting in health care institutions called 'accountability for reasonableness', which links priority setting to theories of democratic deliberation. Fairness is a key goal of priority setting. According to 'accountability for reasonableness', health care institutions engaged in priority setting have a claim to fairness if they satisfy four conditions of relevance, publicity, appeals/revision, and enforcement. This is the first study which has surveyed the views of hospital decision makers throughout an entire health system about the fairness of priority setting in their institutions. The purpose of this study is to elicit hospital decision-makers' self-report of the fairness of priority setting in their hospitals using an explicit conceptual framework, 'accountability for reasonableness'. METHODS: 160 Ontario hospital Chief Executive Officers, or their designates, were asked to complete a survey questionnaire concerning priority setting in their publicly funded institutions. Eight-six Ontario hospitals completed this survey, for a response rate of 54%. Six close-ended rating scale questions (e.g. Overall, how fair is priority setting at your hospital?), and 3 open-ended questions (e.g. What do you see as the goal(s) of priority setting in your hospital?) were used. RESULTS: Overall, 60.7% of respondents indicated their hospitals' priority setting was fair. With respect to the 'accountability for reasonableness' conditions, respondents indicated their hospitals performed best for the relevance (75.0%) condition, followed by appeals/revision (56.6%), publicity (56.0%), and enforcement (39.5%). CONCLUSIONS: For the first time hospital Chief Executive Officers within an entire health system were surveyed about the fairness of priority setting practices in their institutions using the conceptual framework 'accountability for reasonableness'. Although many hospital CEOs felt that their priority setting was fair, ample room for improvement was noted, especially for the enforcement condition. (+info)
Family medicine anesthesia: sustaining an essential service.
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OBJECTIVE: To elicit the opinions of family physician anesthetists (FPAs) and hospital Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) regarding the structure of their organizations and the importance of family medicine anesthesia. DESIGN: Mailed survey. SETTING: Ontario hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: The CEOs of Ontario hospitals and family physicians who provide anesthetic services in Ontario hospitals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographics, practices, and opinions of FPAs and CEOs regarding family medicine anesthesia. RESULTS: Responses were received from 159 of 195 practising FPAs (82%). Of the 128 hospitals in Ontario that offered anesthesia services, 59% used at least one FPA; in 39% of these hospitals, all services were provided by FPAs. Both FPAs and CEOs thought that FPAs were competent to meet the anesthesia needs of small community hospitals. Most FPAs and CEOs supported certification and maintenance of competence programs coordinated by a national body, such as the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Both FPAs and CEOs thought there should be support for additional training programs in family medicine anesthesia. CONCLUSION: Small community hospitals rely completely on FPAs to provide essential anesthesia services. Additional training programs and a national structure to coordinate certification and maintenance of competence programs are important to maintain and enhance this essential service. (+info)
Is Canada ready for patient accessible electronic health records? A national scan.
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CEO- CNE relationships: building an evidence-base of chief nursing executive replacement costs.
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OBJECTIVE: Explore professional relationships between Chief Nurse Executives (CNEs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs); CNE ethnic diversity; and CNE replacement costs. BACKGROUND: Theoretical frameworks - Marilyn Ray's Theory of Bureaucratic Caring, and Turkel's Theory of Relational Complexity espousing economic as well as caring variables. METHODS: Exploratory mixed-method descriptive design using CNE mailed survey. RESULTS: CNE- cited opportunities for maintaining a positive relationship with the CEO: respect for CEO; goal- sharing (r=.782, p<0.01); having a strong relationship (r= .718, p<0.01); co-problem-solving (r=.437, p<0.01); having an interesting job (r=.406, p<0.01); having similar interests with CEO (r= .346, p<0.01); CEO and CNE maintaining specific roles (r= .261, p<0.05); satisfaction with CNE income (r=.251, p<0.05); willingness to improve relationship with CEO (r=.254, p<0.05). CNE positions demonstrated an ethnic diversity factor of 0.03%. CNE replacement costs to healthcare facilities were over 1.5 million dollars. CONCLUSION: CNE/CEO relationships have identified cohesive factors that may contribute to CNE longevity in position; an ethically diverse CNE deficit exists; and, CNE turnover and vacancy rates impact an organization's financial health and quality of care. (+info)
Responses of Massachusetts hospitals to a state mandate to collect race, ethnicity and language data from patients: a qualitative study.
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