1 of the largest studies on health care management finds approaches designed for technology, manufacturing sectors may translate well to health care institutions
Researchers have long surmised that management techniques successful in manufacturing and technology sectors may improve health care quality. However, there has been very little evidence about how these practices are disseminated in hospitals and whether they are associated with better performance.
A new study led by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) health economist K. John McConnell, Ph.D., reveals manufacturing management practices, including Toyota's "Lean" methodologies, may be beneficial in helping hospitals achieve "high-quality health care outcomes." The findings are published online in JAMA-Internal Medicine.
"Although a lot of effort has been focused on the use of evidence-based medicine to improve the quality of clinical practice with some important successes, our study results suggest implementing organizational strategies and management practices that enable and incentivize high-quality health care may also be beneficial," said McConnell, an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at OHSU, and Director of OHSU's Center for Health Systems Effectiveness.
To conduct this research, McConnell and colleagues focused on cardiac units across the country. They adapted an approach used to measure management practices in manufacturing to collect similar data on 597 cardiac units with interventional cardiac catheterization laboratories and a minimum of 25 annual heart attack discharges annually -- making it one of the largest studies ever conducted on management in health care