<p> Hospitals, like many industries, are under great competition and cost control. Hospital leaders are responding to these environmental factors by becoming more efficient in their operations coupled with improving quality and patient satisfaction. According to Ozcan (2008), the health care industry lacks in adequate decision making strategies and performance to maintain competitive market position and understand which hospital is the best practice. Additionally, many companies and hospitals embark on process improvement initiatives, but lack evidence that these programs result in high efficiency. The inspiration for this research project was galvanized from this 21<sup>st</sup> century challenging dynamic and supported by Sherman and Zhu’s (2012) article, which analyses the performance of service organizations. These factors along with the Sherman and Zhu article <i>Analyzing Performance in Service Organizations</i> was the inspiration for this research. The research investigates the impact of quality improvement programs on the overall efficiency of hospitals. The study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to understand hospital efficiency and employ a survey to understand the hospital’s process improvement implementation. The research also collects hospital characteristics such as (a) hospital size, (b) location, and (c) ownership type. The analysis uses 2-Way ANOVA to test the association between process improvement implementation and efficiency of 32 hospitals in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. The process improvement implementation is assessed from the top management prospective of each of the hospitals. The efficiency of each hospital is evaluated using DEA BCC input oriented model. The findings of this research indicate that (1) process improvement programs are widespread in the hospitals in the Mid Atlantic region, (2) hospitals with highest implementation of process improvement showed increases in the hospital’s efficiency regardless of size, location, or ownership type, (3) Data Envelopment Analysis is a practical tool to monitor process improvement practices and identify best practices in a hospital setting.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3746808 |
| Date | 26 January 2016 |
| Creators | Gollhofer, Robert Edward |
| Publisher | Capella University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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