Search

Objectives To highlight clinical and operational issues, identify factors that shape patient responses in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) and test the correlations between composite measures and overall hospital ratings. Design Responses to HCAHPS surveys were used in a partial correlation analysis to ascertain those HCAHPS composite measures that most relate to overall hospital ratings. The linear mean scores for the composite measures and individual and global items were analyzed with descriptive analysis and correlation analysis via JMP and SPSS statistical software. Setting HCAHPS is a patient satisfaction survey required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for hospitals in the USA. The survey is for adult inpatients, excluding psychiatric patients. Participants 3382 US hospitals. Intervention None. Main Outcome Measure Pearson correlation coefficients for the six composite measures and overall hospital rating. Results The partial correlations for overall hospital rating and three composite measures are positive and moderately strong for care transition (0.445) and nurse communication (0.369) and weak for doctor communication (0.066). Conclusions From a health policy standpoint, it is imperative that hospital administrators stress open and clear communication between providers and patients to avoid problems ranging from misdiagnosis to incorrect treatment. Additional research is needed to determine how the coronavirus of 2019 pandemic influences patients' perceptions of quality and willingness to recommend hospitals at a time when nurses and physicians show symptoms of burnout due to heavy workloads and inadequate personal protective equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Alan T. Belasen, Nancy Miller Frank Middle managers are often called upon to exercise completely new skills that may well be the opposite of those they had exercised successfully before organisational downsizing. These same managers are suddenly expected to become vastly more valuable in their current roles. In this research, we have set out to survey the perceptions of human resource (HR) managers across industries regarding the shifting importance of managerial roles before and after downsizing and whether existing or planned HR systems are well enough designed to handle the training and development needs of surviving middle managers. Overall, 85% of the HR managers in our sample agreed that, after downsizing, transformational roles are more important than transactional roles for the functioning of middle managers. Across the board, HR managers reported that tasks and responsibilities underlying transactional and transformational managerial roles shifted significantly after downsizing. About 47% of the HR managers believed that more could have been done to ease the adjustment and increase the success of the transition of middle managers into a changing organisational environment, but their suggestions differed little from activities provided before or during the transition. It is proposed: that the transformation of middle managers should be followed by a parallel transformation of the HR function; and that redressing the long term unsustainable effects of hypereffective managerial behaviour lies in the ability of HR executives and professionals to design competency and educational programmes that help restore the confidence of surviving middle managers, while also supporting their developmental needs.