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Healthcare quality innovation and performance through process orientation: Evidence from general hospitals in Switzerland
Journal
Technological Forecasting and Social Change
ISSN
0040-1625
ISSN-Digital
1873-5509
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2016-12-15
Research Team
IWI1
Abstract
As a primary factor of technological innovation, process orientation contributes significantly to an organization's overall productivity and quality improvement. While this proposition has been confirmed for profit-oriented or- ganizations of various industries, little research exists that validates the same statement in the healthcare sector. This paper proposes and evaluates a theoretical model that investigates the effect of process orientation on hos- pitals' competitiveness and performance. The concept of the balanced scorecard is applied to comprehensively cover all facets that constitute healthcare quality innovation. A set of hypotheses is proposed conceptualizing the direct and indirect effects of process orientation on hospitals' performance (identified as patient satisfaction and financial performance) through an increase of integral competitiveness (identified as workforce conditions, operational performance and clinical quality). The model is empirically tested by means of a questionnaire-based survey among clinical and administrative management of hospitals in Switzerland. 145 complete questionnaires from 129 hospitals are analyzed. Statistical results affirm that process orientation significantly enhances hospital performance. Workforce conditions and clinical quality prove to have a significant positive effect on patient sat- isfaction, whereas the hypothesized positive effect of operational efficiency on patient satisfaction is not support- ed. Moreover, results attest the positive effect of workforce conditions and operational efficiency on financial performance, while rejecting the effect of clinical quality on financial performance.
Language
English
Keywords
Clinical quality
Hospital performance
Hospital performance
Implementation science
Process orientation
Technology innovation
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SoM - Business Innovation
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher place
Amsterdam
Volume
113
Number
Part B
Start page
386
End page
395
Official URL
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
tobias.mettler@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
248788
File(s)