Organizational capacity for change in health care: Development and validation of a scale.

BACKGROUND: We do not have a strong understanding of a health care organization's capacity for attempting and completing multiple and sometimes competing change initiatives. Capacity for change implementation is a critical success factor as the health care industry is faced with ongoing demands for change and transformation because of technological advances, market forces, and regulatory environment. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool to measure health care organizations' capacity to change by building upon previous conceptualizations of absorptive capacity and organizational readiness for change. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A multistep process was used to develop the organizational capacity for change survey. The survey was sent to two populations requesting answers to questions about the organization's leadership, culture, and technologies in use throughout the organization. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate the survey as a measurement tool for organizational capacity for change in the health care setting. FINDINGS: The resulting organizational capacity for change measurement tool proves to be a valid and reliable method of evaluating a hospital's capacity for change through the measurement of the population's perceptions related to leadership, culture, and organizational technologies. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The organizational capacity for change measurement tool can help health care managers and leaders evaluate the capacity of employees, departments, and teams for change before large-scale implementation.

The influence of organization tenure on nurses' perceptions of multiple work process improvement initiatives.

BACKGROUND: A nurse's optimism or skepticism toward an organization-mandated change initiative largely depends on their experience with similar change initiatives and their unit's and organization's track record with previous change efforts. Thus, depending on the context, organization tenure can work in favor or against any particular change initiative. However, few studies have examined the impact of organization tenure on perceptions toward change initiatives. The few studies that have been conducted have yielded mixed results and have only targeted single or similar work initiatives. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine how organization tenure impacts nurses' perceptions toward a diverse array of work process improvement initiatives. METHODOLOGY: The data are derived from a survey of 421 medical-surgical nurses representing 41 units across four hospitals. The survey was designed to capture nurses' perceptions toward three change initiatives-AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, and Thank You), hourly rounding, and discharge phone calls-and their impact across two subscales-patient care and individual work change. FINDINGS: Organization tenure is significantly and negatively associated with change receptivity for the non-patient safety-oriented initiative (AIDET). This negative relationship dissipates as we evaluate more patient safety-oriented work process initiatives (hourly rounding and discharge phone calls). PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Significant differences in nurses' perceptions toward change do exist depending on how long they have worked for their employer. For non-patient safety-oriented change initiatives, veteran-to-the-organization nurses may exhibit more recalcitrance than their new-to-the-organization counterparts. However, our findings also suggest the presence of a patient safety exception rule where veteran-to-the-organization nurses do not exhibit differences in opinion than their new-to-the-organization counterparts for patient safety-oriented change initiatives.

Bedside shift reports: what does the evidence say?

Bedside shift reports are viewed as an opportunity to reduce errors and important to ensure communication between nurses and communication. Models of bedside report incorporating the patient into the triad have been shown to increase patient engagement and enhance caregiver support and education. Nurse shift reports and nurse handovers are 2 of the most critical processes in patient care that can support patient safety and reduce medical errors in the United States. Nurses continue to not recognize the evidence supporting this practice and adopt bedside report into practice.

Success factors for strategic change initiatives: a qualitative study of healthcare administrators' perspectives.

Success factors related to the implementation of change initiatives are well documented and discussed in the management literature, but they are seldom studied in healthcare organizations engaged in multiple strategic change initiatives. The purpose of this study was to identify key success factors related to implementation of change initiatives based on rich qualitative data gathered from health leader interviews at two large health systems implementing multiple change initiatives. In-depth personal interviews with 61 healthcare leaders in the two large systems were conducted and inductive qualitative analysis was employed to identify success factors associated with 13 change initiatives. Results from this analysis were compared to success factors identified in the literature, and generalizations were drawn that add significantly to the management literature, especially to that in the healthcare sector. Ten specific success factors were identified for the implementation of change initiatives. The top three success factors were (1) culture and values, (2) business processes, and (3) people and engagement. Two of the identified success factors are unique to the healthcare sector and not found in the literature on change models: service quality and client satisfaction (ranked fourth of 10) and access to information (ranked ninth). Results demonstrate the importance of human resource functions, alignment of culture and values with change, and business processes that facilitate effective communication and access to information to achieve many change initiatives. The responses also suggest opportunities for leaders of healthcare organizations to more formally recognize the degree to which various change initiatives are dependent on one another.

Multiproject interdependencies in health systems management: a longitudinal qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: A health care organization often engages in the simultaneous implementation of multiple organization change initiatives. However, the degree to which these initiatives are implemented and can be enhanced based on their interdependencies is an open question. How organizations and the change initiatives they pursue might benefit from more careful examination of potential interdependencies among projects was explored in this article. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to introduce a multiproject management conceptualization that stresses project interdependencies and suggests synergies can be found to enhance overall project and organizational performance. It examines this conceptualization in the context of a health system pursuing several major initiatives to capture insights into the nature of such interdependencies. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Longitudinal qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with hospital leaders attempting to manage multiple initiatives being implemented by the system's leadership team was used in this study. FINDINGS: The implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) is empirically identified as the most central among multiple projects based on other projects dependencies on the EMR. Furthermore, concerns for data are identified most frequently as success factors across all projects. This reinforces the depiction of the EMR as a central organizational focus. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: A unique perspective on multiproject management in hospitals and on EMR projects is presented. In addition, the interdependency conceptualization and its application and results provide insights into multiproject management that can help ensure that benefits of individual projects are more fully optimized or exploited in leveraging the effectiveness of other project initiatives.

Health care administrators' perspectives on the role of absorptive capacity for strategic change initiatives: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The dimensions of absorptive capacity (ACAP) are defined, and the importance of ACAP is established in the management literature, but the concept has not been applied to health care organizations attempting to implement multiple strategic initiatives. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to test the utility of ACAP by analyzing health care administrators' experiences with multiple strategic initiatives within two health systems. METHODOLOGY: Results are drawn from administrators' assessments of multiple initiatives within two health systems using in-depth personal interviews with a total of 61 health care administrators. Data analysis was performed following deductive qualitative analysis guidelines. Interview transcripts were coded based on the four dimensions of ACAP: acquiring, assimilating, internalizing/transforming, and exploiting knowledge. Furthermore, we link results related to utilization of management resources, including number of key personnel involved and time consumption, to dimensions of ACAP. FINDINGS: Participants' description of multiple strategic change initiatives confirmed the importance of the four ACAP dimensions. ACAP can be a useful framework to assess organizational capacity with respect to the organization's ability to concurrently implement multiple strategic initiatives. This capacity specifically revolves around human capital requirements from upper management based on the initiatives' location or stage within the ACAP framework. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Strategic change initiatives in health care can be usefully viewed from an ACAP perspective. There is a tendency for those strategic initiatives ranking higher in priority and time consumption to reflect more advanced dimensions of ACAP (assimilate and transform), whereas few initiatives were identified in the ACAP "exploit" dimension. This may suggest that health care leaders tend to no longer identify as strategic initiatives those innovations that have moved to the exploitation stage or that less attention is given to the exploitation elements of a strategic initiative than to the earlier stages.

Rural Healthy People 2010, 2020, and beyond: the need goes on.

Rural Healthy People 2010 represented the first effort to specifically include small and rural communities in the Healthy People movement to improve the health of Americans. Rural Healthy People 2010 set rural-specific health priority areas, documented what is known about health in rural areas, identified rural best practice programs/interventions, and promoted rural health services research and researchers. Over the last decade Rural Healthy People 2010 has provided policy makers, rural providers, and rural communities with a valuable resource for planning and policy making. Sustaining the Rural Healthy People project in collaboration with the broader Healthy People 2020 effort will provide an important infrastructure for improving rural health.

Patient-centered medical homes: will health care reform provide new options for rural communities and providers?

Many are calling for the expansion of the patient-centered medical home model into rural and underserved populations as a transformative strategy to address issues of access, efficiency, quality, and sustainability in the delivery of health care. Patient-centered medical homes have been touted as a promising cost-saving model for comprehensive management of persons with chronic diseases and disabilities, but it is unclear how rural practitioners in medically underserved areas will implement the patient-centered medical home. This article examines how the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act of 2010 will enhance rural providers' ability to provide patient-centered care and services contemplated under the Act in a comprehensive, coordinated, cost-effective way despite leaner budgets and health workforce shortages.

Use of a health information exchange system in the emergency care of children.

BACKGROUND: Children may benefit greatly in terms of safety and care coordination from the information sharing promised by health information exchange (HIE). While information exchange capability is a required feature of the certified electronic health record, we known little regarding how this technology is used in general and for pediatric patients specifically. METHODS: Using data from an operational HIE effort in central Texas, we examined the factors associated with actual system usage. The clinical and demographic characteristics of pediatric ED encounters (n = 179,445) were linked to the HIE system user logs. Based on the patterns of HIE system screens accessed by users, we classified each encounter as: no system usage, basic system usage, or novel system usage. Using crossed random effects logistic regression, we modeled the factors associated with basic and novel system usage. RESULTS: Users accessed the system for 8.7% of encounters. Increasing patient comorbidity was associated with a 5% higher odds of basic usage and 15% higher odds for novel usage. The odds of basic system usage were lower in the face of time constraints and for patients who had not been to that location in the previous 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: HIE systems may be a source to fulfill users' information needs about complex patients. However, time constraints may be a barrier to usage. In addition, results suggest HIE is more likely to be useful to pediatric patients visiting ED repeatedly. This study helps fill an existing gap in the study of technological applications in the care of children and improves knowledge about how HIE systems are utilized.

Studer unplugged: identifying underlying managerial concepts.

There is evidence that the application of Quint Studer's Hardwiring Excellence approach to organizational change is associated with significant accomplishments in hospitals. The authors' review finds the Studer approach to be closely aligned with management-related concepts of motivation and feedback, social networks, human capital, social capital, management by objectives, evidence based management, and organizational learning. The article is intended to familiarize more managers and management researchers with the content of the Studer approach, demonstrate its grounding in management concepts and principles, and stimulate additional discussion around the utility of such human resources-focused interventions in significant organizational change.

An attempt to forecast hospital market share using admission data.

The purpose of this study was to develop a model to forecast market share before actual market share data become available to a hospital system. The typical data lag is about six to nine months, and market share information is often based on incomplete admissions data. Therefore, this exploratory analysis of admissions for all hospitals in a Texas hospital system was performed as an attempt to improve the accuracy and timeliness of market share data. We used four data sources: (1) Texas Health Care Information Council Public Use Data File, (2) Solucient, (3) internal data on admissions for three small nearby hospitals not reporting to the state, and (4) population growth data based on the U.S. census. Data analysis was performed using STATA 9 and SAS statistical software. Six prediction models were chosen and evaluated that best predicted present and future market share using historical market share data, historical and current admissions data, and population growth data. These included models for the total market area; the core cluster; and the eastern, western, northern, and southern market clusters. Only two of the six forecasting equations were useful, with a relatively high prediction value. Overall, the attempt to predict market share based on historical and current admissions data while controlling for demographic factors and seasonality was of limited success. Future research should consider additional factors associated with market share; these factors could include changes in physician referral patterns and third-party-payer contracts. The value of this type of research for management is explored here as well.

Organizational technologies for transforming care: measures and strategies for pursuit of IOM quality aims.

Progress on the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) 6 aims to bridge the "quality chasm" requires both measurement and the concerting of multiple organizational technologies. The basic thesis of this article is that rapid progress on the IOM's multiple aims calls for transformative change within and among healthcare organizations. The promise of a number of types of transformative approaches is closely linked to their ability to simultaneously build upon several organizational technologies: clinical, social, information, and administrative technologies. To encourage and advance such efforts, this article identifies illustrative measures of attainment of the IOM's 6 aims or targeted areas for improvement that reflect the contributions of the 4 organizational technologies. It discusses examples of relationships between the IOM aims and the organizational technologies considered. Finally, the article offers illustrations of the interplay of these organizational technologies and IOM aims-across an array of organizational innovations with transformative potential. Included among such innovations are information technology in the form of electronic medical records, computer-based physician order entry, and patient health records; organization-wide patient-centered cultural change such as Studer's Hardwiring Excellence; Six Sigma and Toyota Production Management/LEAN; major clinical technology change, for example, minimally invasive cardiac surgery and broader treatment innovations such as disease management.

Enhanced Transitions of Care: Centralizing Discharge Phone Calls Improves Ability to Reach Patients and Reduces Hospital Readmissions.

BACKGROUND: The discharge phone call (DPC) is an important initiative aimed at improving transitions of care and reducing readmissions. It is of added importance as financial penalties will be imposed on hospitals with "excessive" Medicare readmissions. This study examines the impact of DPCs on percentages of patients reached through the DPCs and hospital readmission rates based on the centralized or noncentralized mode of DPCs. METHODS: The health system centralized the Studer Group Discharge Phone Call program into one central call center with the goals of reaching more discharged patients and to ultimately reduce hospital readmissions. The study analyzed hospital visits from 74,754 patient admissions that could result in an unplanned hospital readmission. Hospital discharge data were analyzed from August 2010 to January 2014. Primary outcomes included DPCs reaching discharged patients and effects on hospital readmission rates as a result of centralizing the DPC program. RESULTS: Centralized DPCs are significantly associated with increases in the percentage of patients reached by the DPC, which in turn reduces readmissions rates. Patients not reached were 1.32 times more likely to be readmitted than patients reached by centralized DPCs. CONCLUSIONS: Centralizing the DPC program within a call center helps reach more patients and reduce readmission rates further compared with noncentralized DPCs.

Hospital Characteristics are Associated With Readiness to Attain Stage 2 Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records.

PURPOSE: To examine the difference between rural and urban hospitals as to their overall level of readiness for stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) and to identify other key factors that affect their readiness for stage 2 meaningful use. METHODS: A conceptual framework based on the theory of organizational readiness for change was used in a cross-sectional multivariate analysis using 2,083 samples drawn from the HIMSS Analytics survey conducted with US hospitals in 2013. FINDINGS: Rural hospitals were less likely to be ready for stage 2 meaningful use compared to urban hospitals in the United States (OR = 0.49) in our final model. Hospitals' past experience with an information exchange initiative, staff size in the information system department, and the Chief Information Officer (CIO)'s responsibility for health information management were identified as the most critical organizational contextual factors that were associated with hospitals' readiness for stage 2. Rural hospitals lag behind urban hospitals in EHR adoption, which will hinder the interoperability of EHRs among providers across the nation. The identification of critical factors that relate to the adoption of EHR systems provides insights into possible organizational change efforts that can help hospitals to succeed in attaining meaningful use requirements. CONCLUSION: Rural hospitals have increasingly limited resources, which have resulted in a struggle for these facilities to attain meaningful use. Given increasing closures among rural hospitals, it is all the more important that EHR development focus on advancing rural hospital quality of care and linkages with patients and other organizations supporting the care of their patients.

Organizational technologies of chronic disease management programs in large rural multispecialty group practice systems.

Four large rural multispecialty group practice systems employ a mix of organizational technologies to provide chronic disease management with measurable impacts on their patient populations and costs. Four technologies-administrative, clinical, information, and social-are proposed as key dimensions for examining disease management programs. The benefits of disease management are recognized by these systems despite marked variability in the organization of the programs. Committees spanning health plans and clinics in the 4 systems and electronic medical records and/or other disease management information systems are important coordinating mechanisms. Increased reliance on nurses for patient education and care coordination in all 4 systems reflects significant extension of clinical and social technologies in the management of patient care. The promise of disease management as offered by these systems and other auspices are considered.

Opportunities for administrators to promote disease management.

Studies of disease management (DM) have shown that patients who participate in such programs achieve better health status and make fewer emergency room visits. Private and government payers have recently increased their efforts to promote DM initiatives through financial incentives to healthcare providers. This article explores opportunities for administrators of health services organizations (HSO) to promote DM in the current political and economic environment. Our survey of professionals (DM leaders, physicians, and DM nurses) in six DM programs reveals these professionals' assessments of the key players and resources that they deem important to their respective DM programs. They view DM programs as heavily dependent on the support of physicians, nurses, and health plan leaders but relatively less so on the support of HSO administrators- a situation that may suggest opportunities for administrators to take on greater leadership in moving the HSO toward developing DM programs. Survey results also indicate a strong need for the integration of resources such as communication systems, electronic medical records, and DM reporting. Taken collectively, these needs suggest a number of strategies for the administrator to play a larger role in supporting the adoption and effective implementation of DM. In the article, we propose that DM programs can benefit substantially from an administrator who can demonstrate a thorough knowledge of DM-related government and private-payer initiatives and who has the ability to provide leadership to develop and implement viable DM programs. Valued contributions that the administrator should bring to the table include support of standardized DM processes, use of practice guidelines, and provision of pertinent information systems.

Chronic disease management in rural and underserved populations: innovation and system improvement help lead to success.

Successful implementation of disease management (DM) is based on the ability of an organization to overcome a variety of barriers to deliver timely, appropriate care of chronic illnesses. Such programs initiate DM services to patient populations while initiating self-management education among medication-resistant patients who are chronically ill. Despite formidable challenges, rural health care providers have been successful in initiating DM programs and have discovered several ways in which these programs benefit their organizations. This research reports on six DM programs that serve large rural and underserved populations and have demonstrated that DM can be successfully implemented in such areas.

Studer Group® ' s evidence-based leadership initiatives.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the implementation of an organizational change initiative--Studer Group®'s Evidence-Based Leadership (EBL)--in two large, US health systems by comparing and contrasting the factors associated with successful implementation and sustainability of the EBL initiative. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This comparative case study assesses the responses to two pairs of open-ended questions during in-depth qualitative interviews of leaders and managers at both health systems. Qualitative content analysis was employed to identify major themes. FINDINGS: Three themes associated with success and sustainability of EBL emerged at both health systems: leadership; culture; and organizational processes. The theme most frequently identified for both success and sustainability of EBL was culture. In contrast, there was a significant decline in salience of the leadership theme as attention shifts from success in implementation of EBL to sustaining EBL long term. Within the culture theme, accountability, and buy-in were most often cited by interviewees as success factors, while sense of accountability, buy-in, and communication were the most reported factors for sustainability. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Cultural factors, such as accountability, staff support, and communication are driving forces of success and sustainability of EBL across both health systems. Leadership, a critical factor in several stages of implementation, appears to be less salient as among factors identified as important to longer term sustainability of EBL.

Discharge phone calls: a technique to improve patient care during the transition from hospital to home.

The discharge process is a transitional period when the patient's care is shifted from the hospital to the home and can be stressful for patients. One technique used to improve the quality and continuity of care is the discharge phone call (DPC). A large, metropolitan hospital implemented the DPC program to improve quality of care and decrease readmission rates. Qualitative interviews were performed with 24 hospital leaders, managers, and staff to determine the impact of the DPC program on the quality of care during the discharge process. Interviewees responded that the main benefits to the DPCs related to patient's medication management, follow-up appointment reminders, and answering questions. From a hospital perspective, the DPC can provide feedback to help improve the care delivery process related to discharge planning through improved discharge instructions and reinforcement of prescribed steps upon the patient's return home.

Rural health priorities in America: where you stand depends on where you sit.

PURPOSE: To assess levels of agreement on priority areas among state and local rural health leaders nationwide. METHODS: Analysis of responses to a mail survey sent to 999 rural health leaders, with 501 responses. Respondents were asked to rank importance to rural health of focus areas named in Healthy People 2010. FINDINGS: There was substantial agreement on top rural health priorities among state and local rural health leaders across the 50 states. "Access to quality health services" was the top priority among leaders of state-level rural agencies and health associations, local rural public health agencies, rural health clinics and community health centers, and rural hospitals. It was the top priority across all 4 major census regions of the nation as well. The next 4 top-ranking rural priorities--"heart disease and stroke," "diabetes," "mental health and mental disorders," and "oral health"--were selected as 1 of the top 5 rural priorities by one third or more of respondents across most groups and regions. At the same time, some observed differences in rural health priorities suggest opportunities for community partnership strategies or for regional multistate policy initiatives by states sharing similar rural health priorities.