The adoption,character and impact of strategic human resource management: a case study of two large metropolitan Vietnamese public hospitals

In this paper the researchers set out to explore the adoption, character and impact of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in two large metropolitan Vietnamese public hospitals using a multi-level qualitative research design. Data are analyzed from 21 interviews and 5 focus groups with key players from the hospitals and government authorities. Findings show that the State controls many of the core day-to-day HR functions of public hospitals, curtailing local autonomy and management innovation. This is compacted by inadequate government funding, poor training of medical staff, and inadequate management and business skills of hospital managers. Inhibiting greater experimentation with SHRM is the fear of developing management initiatives out of sync with the State. Consequently, many managers and clinicians held negative views of the HR department and their relevance for the day-to-day management of healthcare services. Respondents reported that they perceived these factors had a negative impact on the well-being of medical staff and the quality of patient care. The paper concludes with a discussion on the necessity for continued State reforms that can enable greater autonomy of the hospitals' HRM functions and greater investment in local HR capabilities to materialize the link between SHRM, employee well-being and quality of patient care.     

The new nurse manager: partner in managing costs and quality

Today's nurse manager is a leader in the 1990s health care delivery system. Collaborating with managers throughout the organization, the nurse manager calls upon skills and advanced education to carry out functions in the areas of clinical systems management, human resource management, environmental management, and financial management. This article describes this health care management role and presents case studies where collaboration with other disciplines was successful.     

The Relationship Between HR Capabilities and Quality of Patient Care: The Mediating Role of Proactive Work Behaviors

Based on theoretical frameworks of resource‐based theory, dynamic capabilities, and behavioral perspective on human resource management, we developed a multidimensional construct of human resource (HR) capabilities and tested its relationship with quality of patient care using a national sample of U.S. hospitals. The data on HR capabilities were collected from senior managers (421 individuals nested in 279 hospitals) representing both the administrative and clinical sides of the hospitals. The data on quality of patient care were gathered from two unique sources—patients of 207 hospitals who reported the data via the hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, and 421 senior managers of 279 hospitals. Our analyses using structural equation modeling suggests that the positive relationship of HR capabilities with quality of patient care is mediated by proactive behaviors of health care workers. Implications of the study findings for research and practice are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Six honest serving men

The practice of medical-surgical nursing is "a dynamic, evolutionary process" and the proliferation of health care technology has been instrumental in its evolution. This proliferation and the goal of quality patient care in medical-surgical nursing practice are unlikely to change. However, the provision of quality care depends on the use of appropriate technology. Nurses and materiel managers working collaboratively can identify and promote the use of appropriate health care technology by applying the framework of technology assessment. This framework is analogous to Kipling's six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. The Elephant's Child What, Why, and When advise selective and judicious use of appropriate health care technology. How, Where, and Who reaffirm knowledgeable and proficient use with registered nurses, the patients' "link with the personal, human world within an impersonal, electronic world." Together, the six honest serving men emphasize that the primary purpose of health care technology is the improvement of human health "from the individual level through and including national health policy."     

Issues of materiel management in the neonatal intensive care unit

Managing NICUs can be a challenge not only to the unit manager, but also to those allied areas that provide supplies and services to the unit. If patient census and acuity fluctuate, then the challenge is doubled by the need to maintain a high degree of flexibility in personnel, supplies, and facilities to meet patients' needs. It is necessary that communication among managers occurs so that the equipment and supplies needed to meet physiologic and developmental demands of these vulnerable clients can be achieved efficiently and effectively.     

Experienced and Novice Investors: Does Environmental Information Influence Investment Allocation Decisions?

Economic Value Added (EVA) is a performance measure that is being used by an increasing number of companies, but academic research on EVA is limited. In addition, all prior empirical academic studies on EVA have used the firm as the unit of analysis. In this study, we examine the effect of EVA on the performance of individual managers. Specifically, we examine whether managers on EVA-based bonus plans outperform managers on traditional accounting-based bonus plans. We are able to test this because we have access to an EVA-focused company that has managers on both EVA and traditional bonus plans. Our results suggest that managers on EVA bonus plans who understand the EVA concept perform better than managers on traditional bonus plans. However, we find some evidence that the increase in performance results from increased consistency or congruence in the manager's evaluation–reward process rather than from superiority of EVA as a performance measure. Also, we find that the effect of EVA bonuses and EVA understanding differs depending on the area of the firm in which the manager is employed. This suggests that EVA may not be a universally appropriate base for reward systems. *Mohan Lal passed away 24 July 2002. This paper is dedicated to him.     

Social identification: linking high performance work systems,psychological empowerment and patient care

This paper examines the mediating effects of social identification on the relationship between high performance work systems (HPWS) and psychological empowerment and the direct relationship between psychological empowerment and clinician perceptions of quality of patient care. We use structural equation modelling on a sample of 254 health professionals from a large regional hospital in Australia. Results demonstrate, first, a strong effect of HPWS on social identification. Second, social identification mediates the relationship between HPWS and psychological empowerment and, third, psychological empowerment has a strong effect on clinician perceptions of quality of patient care. Implications are drawn for management theory and hospital managers.     

Development of an integrated medical supply information system

The integrated medical supply inventory control system introduced in this study is a hybrid system that is shaped by the nature of medical supply, usage and storage capacity limitations of health care facilities. The system links demand, service provided at the clinic, health care service provider's information, inventory storage data and decision support tools into an integrated information system. ABC analysis method, economic order quantity model, two-bin method and safety stock concept are applied as decision support models to tackle inventory management issues at health care facilities. In the decision support module, each medical item and storage location has been scrutinised to determine the best-fit inventory control policy. The pilot case study demonstrates that the integrated medical supply information system holds several advantages for inventory managers, since it entails benefits of deploying enterprise information systems to manage medical supply and better patient services.     

NICU护理安全管理中护理标识的应用及效果

目的:探讨护理标识在护理服务中应用的效果,以保障患者的安全。方法:制定统一、醒目的护理标识,在护理服务过程中规范、有针对性地使用护理标识、同时将护理标识作为护理质量考核的重要内容。结果:应用护理标识,护理人员风险意识增强,患者对护理工作的满意度提高,不良事件明显减少。结论:护理标识的应用,有效控制了护理不良事件的发生,确保了护理安全。     

Resisting government rendered surveillance in a local authority

ABSTRACT

The paper illustrates and discusses how the performance management systems in a UK local authority are transformed into a surveillance system. A case study analysis reveals that the surveillance is engendered by central government and enacted by senior managers who conform to policies demanding the introduction of strict performance management systems that dehumanize work processes because employees are deemed untrustworthy. The paper shows that employees resist this government rendered surveillance because they believe it undermines their interests as well as the interests of the public by damaging the quality of the services delivered.     

护理管理中绩效考核的应用价值探讨

目的:观察探讨绩效考核在护理管理当中的应用价值。方法:就我院外科科室的18名护理人员进行分析,观察绩效考核制度引入前后的护理人员的从业素质、护理质量、教学指标和患者满意度进行观察。结果:我院在引入绩效管理进入之后,护理人员的从业素质、护理质量、教学指标和患者满意度得到了明显地提高。结论:绩效考核制度能够切实有效地提高医院护理管理的水平,帮助护理人员自身素质、护理专业技能和知识的提高,可以督促护理人员不断学习,而且可以提高患者的满意度,减少医患纠纷的发生。     

实施微笑服务打造输液室护理品牌

目的:实施微笑服务,提高护理水平,打造护理品牌。方法:改善输液室环境、体现人性化护理、建设品牌的护理团队、从细节入手、从点点滴滴入手,让患者感动,打造品牌服务。结果:患者满意度100%.团队凝聚力增加,护理质量得到了持续改进。结论:从以上几个方面实施微笑护理品牌服务,建设了一整套可推广的输液室护理模式。     

Trends in multiculturalism in health care

Materiel managers are faced with a shrinking world and changing work environment. The needs and expectations of the customer have shifted because of the increasing number of multicultural groups. These groups will continue to assert their right to culturally sensitive care. Materiel managers also need to learn to support and enhance the skills of a multicultural work force. One important tool for change will be technology. However, technology that brings the world closer together also creates new challenges for managers, who will have to deal with multicultural colleagues, buyers, sellers, and manufacturers of goods and services.     

An innovative mobile approach for patient safety services: The case of a Taiwan health care provider

As the importance of patient safety increases for hospital management, many health care providers have begun to use innovative mobile technology to make their procedures more accurate and efficient, and to reduce the risk of human error. This paper explores an innovative mobile approach for patient safety and health care services in a Taiwan hospital, where a web-based patient safety services (PSS) system was implemented to enhance the efficiency of diagnosis and patient safety. The functions and operating procedures of the PSS system are introduced. Furthermore, the contributions of the PSS system over a six-month period of clinical use are analyzed. Finally, the managerial implications of mobile PSS are discussed.     

Cognitive style: Some human resource implications for managers

Cognitive style may be defined as an individual’s inherent and consistent way of organizing and processing information. It is independent of cognitive ability and may have an important bearing on individual performance within and across organizational settings, for example in the areas of selection, vocational and occupational preferences, management competence, team composition and performance, occupational-stress training and development and organizational learning. A model is suggested in which it is argued cognitive ability, cognitive style and cognitive strategies are intervening variables between individual/organizational processes and individual/organizational performance. It is suggested that managers and others within organizations who have a responsibility for human resource issues need to consider ways in which a knowledge of style may be integrated into these important areas of activity.     

Survival strategies in the era of managed care

The era of managed care has forced an unprecedented restructuring of the health care environment. As hospitals downsize in response, materiel managers should consider adopting strategies that may help ensure their survival, including innovative approaches to supply management and the development of individual responses that will best position them to succeed in this new reality.     

A decision support system to improve the efficiency of resource allocation in healthcare management

Limitations in healthcare funding require hospitals to find more effective ways to utilize resources. An effective patient management system is critically dependent on the accurate analysis of individual patient outcomes and resource utilization. In the current paper, a management-oriented decision support model is thus proposed to assist health system managers in improving the efficiency of their systems. In the first stage of the model, the key variables affecting system efficiency, as well as their causal relationships, are identified through causal maps. Efficiency is measured by the total time spent in the system. In the second stage, a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) is employed to represent both the conditional dependencies and uncertainties of the key variables. In the third stage, a sensitivity analysis is performed using a BBN to determine the most critical variable(s) in terms of impact on the system. Finally, strategies to improve system efficiency are proposed. The suggested decision support system is applied to the tomography section in the radiology department of a private hospital in Turkey.     

A healthy bottom line and quality patient care: can they coexist?

In summary, it is the writer's opinion that a healthy bottom line and quality patient care can coexist. With today's economic pressures and with more and tighter controls and regulations being imposed by the government and regulatory agencies, providers (especially hospitals) need to be cost efficient and cost effective. Will the cost-containment measures necessary to maintain a healthy bottom line reduce the quality of patient care? They needn't. In point, such measures might actually increase the quality of care by avoiding wasteful clinical practices. Quality patient care comprises three basic elements: value, service, and compassion. To omit any one of these ingredients is to remove the quality from patient care. Should this happen, no cost-containment measure will be enough to sustain a hospital. Financial accountability is essential; quality care is imperative. Blended together thoroughly, they are the recipe to survival--for the hospital and for the patient.     

Mutual fund performance: The decision quality and capital magnet efficiencies

This study employs a two-stage network data envelopment analysis model to analyze the decision quality and capital magnet efficiencies of 155 mutual funds in Taiwan during the period 2007–2016. The empirical results show that fund managers improved their decision quality; however, their capital magnet efficiency declined. This study also found 10 mutual funds performing in decision quality and capital magnet efficiencies, from which practical suggestions are provided to investors. Finally, this study constructs a market competition matrix to help fund managers (and investors) improve their operating and portfolio performance, plus resource allocation.     

Perceived supervisor support climate,perceived investment in employee development climate,and business‐unit performance

Perceived supervisor support (PSS) has been found to predict employee in‐role and extra‐role performance at the individual level of analysis. With respect to the unit level of analysis, the research on the predictive role of PSS remains limited. In particular, calls have been made for research on the role of leadership in facilitating perceived HR practices at the business‐unit level and on the role of line managers as implementers of such systems. In response to such calls, this study investigated the associations between PSS climate, perceived investment in employee development (PIED) climate, and business‐unit performance among 75 gas stations located in Norway. The results showed that the PSS climate was positively related to both the PIED climate and the business‐unit performance. This study contributes to research on PSS by extending the prior findings at the individual level to the unit level of analysis. Also, the study contributes to the research on perceived HR practices by demonstrating the facilitative role of the PSS climate. Finally, the study contributes to the research on shared perceptions of HR practices generally and the concept of the “strength” of the HRM system in particular. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.