Strategic adaptation of US rural hospitals during an era of limited financial resources: a longitudinal study, 1983 to 1993

Estimating determinants of healthcare establishment locations with restricted federal administrative data

We model the locational determinants of nine categories of healthcare services in the contiguous United States using restricted access federal establishment data. These data enable close examination of rural health services, which are subject to suppression in publicly published data sources. After reviewing differences in public and unsuppressed restricted data and testing underlying data generation processes for each healthcare industry, including the Poisson, negative binomial, and their zero-inflated counterparts, we estimate marginal effects for four categories of independent variables: place-based factors, financial access, characteristics of population, and industry interdependencies. Findings show establishments are less likely to be found with high concentrations of Medicare and Medicaid recipients, while agglomerations are associated with more establishments. Nonemployer establishments serve a broader spectrum of people, but the rural poor still experience less access to health care.

Environmental and Organizational Factors Associated with Hospital Use of GPO Services

Given the potential benefits of Group Purchasing Organizations in cost-containment efforts for hospitals on supplies and purchased services, an important question that remains unanswered is what conditions support or hinder the utilization of GPOs by hospitals. Therefore, this study explores the relationship between GPO use by hospitals and their market and organizational characteristics. Data on hospital GPO utilization and other organizational characteristics were combined with secondary hospital market characteristics. Panel logistic regression with random effects and state and year fixed effects analysis was used to examine the relationship between hospitals' utilization of GPO services and hospitals' organizational and market characteristics. Overall, the majority of hospitals utilized the services of GPOs. Specifically, the number of hospitals utilizing the services of GPOs increased slightly from 3290 (72.2%) in 2004 to 3337 (74.4%) in 2013. In regression analyses, hospitals utilizing the services of GPOs operated in an external environment with mixed levels of munificence, more dynamism, and less competition. Specifically, hospitals operating in a less munificent environment are more likely to utilize the services of GPOs. The study findings provide organizational decision-makers and policymakers' insights into how certain market and organizational factors influence hospital strategy choice, in this case, the use of GPOs.

Environmental factors and quality improvement in county and local health departments

OBJECTIVE

On the basis of resource dependency theory and the uncertainty principle, this study examines the relationship between the local public health market environment and the use of quality improvement (QI) strategies in local health departments.

DESIGN

This cross-sectional study uses secondary data from the 2008 National Association of County & City Health Officials profile study, the Health Resources and Services Administration's Area Resource File, and the County Health Rankings 2010 data set.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

US local health departments.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Seven binary dependent variables that represented the use of QI processes or QI training within local health departments were used. Eight independent variables were identified and operationalized to measure the constructs of munificence, dynamism, and complexity for the local public health market environment. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used.

RESULTS

Two of the 3 munificence variables were positively associated with QI, as predicted. These included percentage of zip codes with healthy food outlets (β = +.016, P < .05) and the number of primary care physicians per capita (β = +1.327, P < .05). Two of the 3 measures of complexity were, as predicted, negatively associated with indicators of QI. These included smoking prevalence (β = -.118, P < .05) and obesity rates (β = -.081, P < .10). With respect to dynamism, 1 variable (change in population size over a 5-year period) was unexpectedly, positively related to QI (β = +.118, P < .10 and β = +0.235, P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall findings provide moderate support for the use of resource dependency theory and the uncertainty perspective to understand the influence of the external environment on QI within the local public health setting. Future research should examine other ways of operationalizing these environmental constructs to examine the relationship between the environment and other elements of public health practice.

Physicians in leadership: the association between medical director involvement and staff-to-patient ratios

In a hospital environment that demands a careful balance between commercial and clinical interests, the extent to which physicians are involved in hospital leadership varies greatly. This paper assesses the influence of the extent of this involvement on staff-to-patient ratios. Using data gathered from 604 hospitals across Germany, this study evidences the positive relationship between a full-time medical director (MD) or heavily involved part-time MD and a higher staff-to-patient ratio. The data allows us to control for a range of confounding variables, such as size, rural/urban location, ownership structure, and case-mix. The results contribute to the sparse body of empirical research on the effect of clinical leadership on organizational outcomes.

Sustaining and Improving Hospital Performance

Using data from hospitals in ten states, this study examines the effects of organizational and market factors on the likelihood of becoming high-quality/low-cost providers during the period of 1997-2001. The findings highlight the important role of previous performance, internal operations, and market competition in hospital performance improvement. Achieving high-quality/low-cost performance is also incidentally found to be associated with improved profit margins.

Linkages in the rural continuum: the balanced budget act and beyond

PURPOSE

This study examined how rural hospitals altered their postacute and long-term care strategies after the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA97).

DESIGN AND METHODS

A nationally representative sample of 540 rural hospital discharge planners were interviewed in 1997. In the year 2000, 513 of 540 discharge planners were reinterviewed. The study is a descriptive analysis of how rural hospitals formed new and altered existing organizational strategies during a time of turbulent changes in federal government reimbursement policy. We classify rural hospital strategic behavior in 1997 according to the Miles and Snow typology of Prospectors, Analyzers, Defenders, and Reactors, and then we examine how the various hospital types altered key strategies following BBA97.

RESULTS

Between 1997 and 2000, more than 26% of sampled rural hospitals that did not participate in the swing-bed program in 1997 (44/167) had chosen to do so in 2000, whereas only 3% of those using swing beds in 1997 had eliminated them (12/346). Other strategies such as divestiture of hospital-based nursing homes were related to concurrent swing-bed adoption. Rural hospitals also increased their reliance on formal linkages with external providers of long-term care.

IMPLICATIONS

After the BBA97 reimbursement changes, rural hospitals increased their reliance on swing beds and formal linkages to external providers. We observed changes in overall strategy types, away from the Defender and toward the Prospector and Analyzer strategy types. Our findings illustrate the importance of swing beds as a critical buffer for rural hospitals challenged by the uncertainty of the post-BBA97 environment.