ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Debates continue regarding optimal structures for governance and administration between medical schools and their teaching hospitals. METHODS: Structural integration (SI) for 85 academic health centers was characterized as high (single leader or fiduciary) or low (multiple leaders or fiduciaries). Functional alignment (FA) was estimated from questionnaire responses by teaching hospitals' chief executive officers, and an index was calculated quantifying organizational collaboration across several functional areas. SI and FA were examined for their association with global performance measures in teaching, research, clinical care, finance, and efficiency. RESULTS: AHCs with high SI had significantly higher FA, though overlap between high-SI and low-SI institutions was considerable. SI was not significantly associated with any performance measure. In contrast, FA was significantly associated with higher performance in teaching, research, and finance but not clinical care and efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: FA between medical schools and their primary teaching hospitals more strongly predicts academic health centers' performance than does SI. As demands for greater collaboration increase under health reform, emphasis should be placed on increasing FA rather than SI.
Subject(s)
Academic Medical Centers/organization & administration , Cooperative Behavior , Diagnosis-Related Groups/organization & administration , Hospitals, University/organization & administration , Leadership , Schools, Medical/organization & administration , Academic Medical Centers/economics , Academic Medical Centers/trends , Diagnosis-Related Groups/economics , Diagnosis-Related Groups/trends , Direct Service Costs , Financing, Government , Hospital Costs , Hospitals, University/economics , Hospitals, University/trends , Humans , Schools, Medical/economics , Schools, Medical/trends , Surveys and Questionnaires , United StatesABSTRACT
Hospitals continuously look for ways to improve patient care and retain high-quality physicians. Previous research indicates that physicians' satisfaction with where they practice is a crucial part of addressing these issues. A reliable and valid method to assess physician satisfaction is needed in order to identify potential areas of discontent. The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a self-administered medical staff satisfaction survey. The survey contains 13 Likert-type items divided into three reliable subscales: Quality of Patient Care (alpha = .84), Ease of Practice (alpha = .76), and Relationship with Leadership (alpha = .92). Results from both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the survey's structure and robustness across three independent samples.
