Today's Competitive Health Care Research Articles

Grassroots Approach to Forming a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in an Academic Radiology Department

Radiology is among the medical specialties that have made the fewest gains in closing the gap in underrepresented minorities and women. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are important for promoting healthy learning environments for trainees, health equity for patients, and equitable career development opportunities for employees, all of which contribute to innovation in today's competitive health care environment. DEI committees can self-organize or form from institutional directives. These committees can implement impactful projects in multiple domains in education, recruitment and retention, department culture, and health equity research. This article describes the formation of a grassroots DEI committee, key initiatives and strategies, and structures for accountability. ©RSNA, 2023 Quiz questions for this article are available in the supplemental material.

Health Care Providers’ Awareness Regarding Quality Management System and Its Relation to Patient Satisfaction

Introduction: quality is emerging as a dominant and complex theme in today's competitive health care environment; it plays an important role in patients' choice of hospital. Quality of care is partly a function of the need for care and includes patients' satisfaction which is a function consistent with scientific knowledge and generally accepted professional standards. Aim: the present study aimed to assessing health care providers’ awareness regarding quality management system and it’s relation to patient satisfaction through assessing the awareness level of health care providers regarding quality management system, assessing the level of patient satisfaction regarding quality of health care provided, and finding out the relationship between health care providers’ awareness and patient satisfaction. Research Design: A descriptive, correlational design was used. Setting:. This study was conducted at 12 Benha Family Health Centers, 120 nurses,120 Physicians, and 300 patient from this twelve centers were included in the study. Tools of data collection: two different tools were used namely questionnaire for health care providers' awareness and patients satisfaction questionnaire. Results: The total healthcare providers’ awareness had increased due to higher scores in constant and quality unit parameters at the studied centers. as well as There was a higher total satisfaction scores for patients due to higher percentages in their ages and medical services provided to them., also As the increasing of awareness regarding quality management system it had an impact on increasing the quality of health care services resulting in increasing of patients’ satisfaction. As the decreasing of awareness regarding quality management system had an impact on decreasing the quality of health care services resulting in decreasing of patient satisfaction. Conclusion: there was a strong positive correlation between health care providers' awareness and patients’ satisfaction: Recommendation: Improving the quality of health care provided to patients in the studied centers, suggestions and complaints of patients should be Taken into consideration to improve quality services and increase pt satisfaction. Keywords: Quality management system, health care providers, awareness and patients' satisfaction.

The benefits of integrating a statistician into a nursing research department.

In today's competitive healthcare market, more hospitals are seeking Magnet® designation. To meet the expectations for evidence-based practice and research, many organizations are considering the addition of statistical expertise to their team. The authors discuss the benefits of analytical support and integration of a statistician on the team.

Cost-saving strategies for diagnostic microbiology laboratories

In today's competitive health care climate, microbiology laboratories are asked to do more work, often with limited or decreasing resources. Cost-saving strategies, successfully implemented in one or more microbiology laboratories across the globe, are listed. For each cost-saving suggestion, careful evaluation must occur prior to implementation, considering the ability and policies of the local institution and understanding that not all suggestions are workable for every laboratory. For the purpose of this article, six categories of cost-saving ideas are explored: (i) technical streamlining, (ii) workflow optimization, (iii) personnel utilization, (iv) cost avoidance, (v) reduction of service, and (vi) investing in savings. Of note, if patient outcome is not beneficially affected by the laboratory test result in question, then perhaps the test should not be performed, or at least not routinely performed.

Clinical Commentary in Response to: The Effects of Oscillating-Energy Manual Therapy on Lateral Epicondylitis: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, and Double-Blinded Study

We commend Nourbakhsh and Fearon for performing clinical research related to the treatment interventions of lateral epicondylosis during this day and age of evidence-based practice. Today's competitive health care environment forces hand therapists to advance our profession by being critical of the literature when choosing effective treatment interventions. There are several elements that hand therapists should consider to make educated decisions for treatment interventions from the hand therapy body of evidence.

Aligning Internal Organizational Factors With a Service Excellence Mission

In today's competitive health care environment, service excellence is rapidly becoming a major differentiating advantage between health care providers. Too often, senior executives talk about their commitment to a mission statement that extols the virtues of providing world class service to their patients only to undermine those statements with what they do, write, and say. This article presents an exploratory investigation into a new application of an internal mission alignment instrument that seeks to assess the extent to which an organization's internal processes are aligned with its service mission. This instrument was sent to 250 randomly selected employees from all clinical departments of a large southeastern hospital to explore the underlying alignment factors. A factor analysis of the data revealed eight factors that predicted beneficial employee outcomes such as organizational commitment and satisfaction with the job and organization.

Major Teaching Hospitals Defying Darwin

The increase of every creature is constantly being checked by unperceived agencies; and... these same unperceived are amply sufficient to cause rarity, and finally wrote Charles Darwin inThe Origin of Species.1Today's competitive health care environment is pointedly Darwinian, but its hostile agencies are amply apparent. An unspoken, subversive subtext anticipates of the fittest—we all know the fate of the dinosaurs. Nowadays, as health policy experts muse about which health care institutions risk extinction, major teaching hospitals are not infrequently called dinosaurs. Underlying this speculation is the assumption that price, virtually exclusively, drives hospital competition. For many reasons, most major teaching hospitals are undeniably costlier than nonteaching facilities.2But what about broader societal contributions, such as education and research, and what about quality of care? See also p 485. In the natural world, wily ways—speedy and clever responses to external threats—provide primal survival

CONTRACTED VISITING HOURS IN THE CORONARY CARE UNIT: A Patient-Centered Quality Improvement Project

As critical care technology advances, the need to provide patient-centered care becomes increasingly critical. Grandstrom 4 states that patients and families want "more." They have greater expectations and demand greater knowledge and involvement, vis-$aG-vis the hospital experience. Rather than indicating a desire to observe procedures or equipment, these expectations reveal a more personal and human need---the desire of patients and families to maintain contact and interact with one another. Allowing patients and families control over visiting times in a critical care setting is the first step in giving families and patients what they need. The use of contracted visiting hours allows families and patients to maintain some control over their lifestyles during a crisis. This project is still in progress. The evolution of the perfect contract continues. The outcome of increased flexibility and control of visiting times for families has been embraced and supported by the staff. It is believed that implementation of flexible visiting hours has increased the staff's awareness of the patient and family as consumers. In today's competitive health care environment, Artinian 1 proposes that "strengthening relationships with families may make the critical difference related to patients' and families' choices about whether a health-care setting meets their needs." By implementing flexible visiting hours these relationships are enhanced and consumer satisfaction is influenced. Also, the institutional goal of patient-centered care, and ultimately quality patient care, is promoted.

Critical thinking: a foundation for consumer-focused care.

Both providers and recipients of health care services are now focusing attention on not only what is provided but also how services are provided. The goal is consumer satisfaction, with pressure on the provider of services to meet customer demands. This shift in focus challenges the knowledge and skills of nurses, and their ability to solve problems in collaboration with their customers. To provide consumer-focused care, nurses will need to develop critical thinking skills that utilize logical/analytical and intuitive/creative approaches to solving problems. Critical thinking skills that integrate these two approaches will provide practitioners expertise in flexible, individualized, and situation-specific problem solving. Nursing staff who are able to focus on the consumer will be better prepared to meet the demands of today's competitive health care market. The challenge facing educators is to prepare nurses with a foundation from which to provide this care.

The ???C???s in Excellence

Today's competitive healthcare world mandates excellence. Two aspects of excellence, choice and change, are part of the never-ending cycle when giving quality patient care. Managers can enable others to initiate change when needed which establishes the core of management and tomorrow's realities for progress, performance and patient care.

Staff model HMO's and managed mental health care: one plan's experience.

HMO staff model mental health programs have particular expertise in providing these services in an integrated fashion within the context of a total medical care system. "Carve-out" approaches to managed mental health care risk losing the added value found in primary care based integrated mental health services. Employers as purchasers of care are seeking demonstrated value in services, and the rise of specialty mental health managed care firms is bringing the efficiencies of managed mental health care familiar to HMO's to a broader audience. Faced with employer concerns, and this new competitive environment, many HMO's are examining their mental health services to determine how these services may respond to the needs being expressed by employers today for new program options. The Community Health Plan's (CHP) experience is presented to illustrates one approach HMO's are taking in today's competitive health care environment.

Caring is more than kindness: modeling its complexities.

In today's competitive health care environment, the term "caring" is used to promote positive consumer response to services, but little attention is paid to its substantive nature. Today's nurse executives must be able to articulate the value of nursing to other decision makers as choices are made about where limited health care resources should be distributed. Managerial decision makers are familiar with analyzing problems aided by quantitative data. This presents a challenge to nurse executives because the professional practices of nursing do not always lend themselves well to quantification. Caring is a central focus of nursing practice which is difficult to advance because of problems with its definition and measurement. Presented here is a model of caring which illustrates its complex nature, and which is supported by both quantitative and qualitative data.

Viewpoint: commerce without mortality?

The value system of an organization is important, and the chief executive officer has a responsibility to ensure that it takes root. This nine-point program can serve as a useful guide to the CEO who wants his or her organization to be accountable in today's competitive health care environment.

Planning evolution in hospital management

In today's competitive health care market, hospitals are adopting more sophisticated and aggressive planning systems. The development of hospital planning can be visualized as an evolutionary progression from financially based systems to advanced systems of strategic analysis. This article offers a prescriptive model that hospital administrators can use to assess their organization's planning capabilities and move along the path to more effective planning.

Investor-related academic health center: an 'uncertain courtship'?

Preserving M. more than two millenia of medical tradition in today's competitive health care market-place is the challenge now faced by university-affiliated physicians and hospital administrators. To consider what many find the most expedient approach to the problem, a "Conference on the Investor-Related Academic Health Center and Medical Education" was held recently in Phoenix under the sponsorship of the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, and Association of American Medical Colleges. The event was organized by the AMA's Section on Medical Schools. Co-chairs of the planning committee were John E. Chapman, MD, dean, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn, and Stanley S. Bergen, Jr, MD, president, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark. The meeting's subtitle, "An Uncertain Courtship," seems to characterize a situation in which poor-but-honest nonprofit teaching hospitals are increasingly finding themselves not only succumbing to the blandishments of wealthy, acquisitive investor-owned health care corporations