Abstract
BackgroundStrategic leadership is an important organizational capability and is essential for quality improvement in hospital settings. Furthermore, the quality of leadership depends crucially on a common set of shared values and mutual trust between hospital management board members. According to the concept of social capital, these are essential requirements for successful cooperation and coordination within groups. ObjectivesWe assume that social capital within hospital management boards is an important factor in the development of effective organizational systems for overseeing health care quality. We hypothesized that the degree of social capital within the hospital management board is associated with the effectiveness and maturity of the quality management system in European hospitals.MethodsWe used a mixed-method approach to data collection and measurement in 188 hospitals in 7 European countries. For this analysis, we used responses from hospital managers. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a multilevel linear regression analysis of the association between social capital and the quality management system score at the hospital level, controlling for hospital ownership, teaching status, number of beds, number of board members, organizational culture, and country clustering. ResultsThe average social capital score within a hospital management board was 3.3 (standard deviation: 0.5; range: 1-4) and the average hospital score for the quality management index was 19.2 (standard deviation: 4.5; range: 0-27). Higher social capital was associated with higher quality management system scores (regression coefficient: 1.41; standard error: 0.64, p=0.029). ConclusionThe results suggest that a higher degree of social capital exists in hospitals that exhibit higher maturity in their quality management systems. Although uncontrolled confounding and reverse causation cannot be completely ruled out, our new findings, along with the results of previous research, could have important implications for the work of hospital managers and the design and evaluation of hospital quality management systems.
Highlights
Improving the quality of health care has become a crucial issue for hospitals in recent years
High quality leadership can be assumed to be an effective organizational capability, which is essential for quality improvement in health care settings [5,6,7]
The sample included 41.3% (N=57) teaching hospitals and 58.7% (N=81) non-teaching hospitals. 10.1% (N=14) of the hospitals had less than 200 beds, 44.2% (N=61) had 200-500 beds, 30.4% (N=42) hospitals had 501-1000 beds and 15.2% (N=21) hospitals had more than 1000 beds
Summary
Improving the quality of health care has become a crucial issue for hospitals in recent years. High quality leadership can be assumed to be an effective organizational capability, which is essential for quality improvement in health care settings [5,6,7]. This quality of leadership is reflected in shared values and mutual trust – social capital – among the hospital management board members. Objectives: We assume that social capital within hospital management boards is an important factor in the development of effective organizational systems for overseeing health care quality. We hypothesized that the degree of social capital within the hospital management board is associated with the effectiveness and maturity of the quality management system in European hospitals. Uncontrolled confounding and reverse causation cannot be completely ruled out, our new findings, along with the results of previous research, could have important implications for the work of hospital managers and the design and evaluation of hospital quality management systems
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