Bridging hospital quality leadership to patient care quality

Abstract

Understanding what drives quality in the delivery of healthcare services is critical to improve the patient care experience. In a hospital, the integration of technology platforms and effective teamwork promote quality care, but this outcome requires that hospital leadership prioritizes technology integration and commits resources to sustain effective healthcare delivery teams. Some of these concepts have been investigated with a limited focus or in very narrow research contexts. Because these concepts do not interact in isolation, an empirical study that examines the relationships between them simultaneously is important to explore the links between hospital quality leadership (QL), technology integration (TI), healthcare team effectiveness (HTE) and patient care quality (PCQ). An online survey of 300 middle and senior-level U.S. hospital executives and quality heads completed during a four-month period is used to test the research hypotheses drawn primarily from quality management, information processing, and team effectiveness theories. The results suggest that hospital leaders should emphasize the integration of all technology systems in their hospitals and continuously encourage their healthcare teams to work effectively thereby improving the quality of patient care delivered. Based on the post-hoc results, we suggest that hospital quality leaders should recognize the difference in magnitude of the effects of HTE and TI on the four PCQ facets.