Health Services Management Research

The objective of this study was to evaluate the mobbing perception levels of health workers, who were mobbed and to determine whether the socio-demographic characteristics of the employees made a significant difference in the perception of mobbing. Within the scope of the study, the mobbing perception levels of 516 healthcare personnel were evaluated by using relational screening model. In order to collect data, socio-demographic data form and Leymann Psychological Terrorist Scale developed by Heinz Leymann were used. As a result of the study, 70.0% of the participants who were exposed to mobbing reported that they were exposed to mobbing behaviors by their managers. The Leymann Psychological Terrorism Scale was found to be 1.49. Mobbing behaviors that affect self-disclosure and communication possibilities is the most common bullying behavior that the participants were exposed (x̄: 1.73). As a result, the data suggested that company policies rather than demographic characteristics of individuals are effective in the exposure to mobbing behaviors. It is thought that the cultural structures of the societies and the individuals’ knowledge about which behaviors can be evaluated as mobbing have an effect on the mobbing perception levels of the individuals. Accepting mobbing behaviors as a normal situation in hierarchical structure or interpersonal relationships is one of the important problems in prevention. For this reason, one of the most important steps in the prevention of mobbing is to ensure that both managers and employees are informed about mobbing.

Although there has been a tremendous change in the way diseases are diagnosed and treated, the ways in which health care delivery has been managed has seen very little change.

Several academic studies have arisen in the area of service design, but an amalgamation of this research, especially in the area of healthcare services is not available. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the published research on service design in healthcare and accordingly identify the gaps and scope of future research. After analyzing the articles and reviewing the Service design in healthcare literature, the following are our main contributions: (i) clarification of the service design concept and the developments that appears in the literature review of service design in the healthcare sector; (ii) classification of the service design tools and techniques that are most commonly used in the healthcare sector; (iii) demonstration of the service design as the preponderant construct that is used as a tool and technique to improve quality and efficiency in the healthcare service.The resultant systematic review reveals a change in the type of research carried out, the service design tools used and a shift towards service design from using the co-design tool to other methods. The paper highlights the gaps in the very limited amount of empirical work in the non-clinical healthcare space and accordingly a model is recommended.

Behavioral health influences patient health outcomes and healthcare utilization rates. Hospitals are promising settings for appropriate identification, treatment, and referral of behavioral health issues and may affect hospital admission rates and healthcare costs. Implementation frameworks are designed to aid successful adoption and scaling of health innovations. One type – process models – present staged frameworks for rolling out an innovation into routine practice. Process models are appealing for their pragmatism but are criticized for oversimplifying the complexity of implementation. This review investigates the empirical evidence for process models’ utility in hospitals, chosen for their uniquely complex structures, by determining whether their use impacts implementation outcomes. Using systematic search and selection criteria across six databases, ten peer-reviewed studies were identified. Each applied a process model for implementing behavioral health innovations within hospital systems. Studies were coded by type of stage framework and reported implementation outcomes. Studies reported mostly favorable or mixed outcomes. No one framework prevailed in use nor evidence. Due to the paucity of published literature and reported data, there is limited evidence that process model application propels implementation outcomes in hospital settings. Furthering the science requires creating and utilizing systematic guidelines to employ process models, measure and report implementation stage transition, and measure and report implementation outcomes. Management and practitioners can include such data collection in standard process evaluations of hospital implementation and scale-up activities, or adopt complexity-informed approaches that lack the simplicity of process models but may be more realistic for complex settings.

Over the last decade, second victim phenomenon (SVP) has been identified as a serious issue for healthcare workers (HCWs). Results from a 2018 survey of Canadian HCWs demonstrated that the majority of those who responded had experienced SVP and indicated that there was a lack of support in the workplace. The overall objectives of this paper are to a) heighten the awareness about SVP and its impact on HCWs and 2) to recommend an organizational/systems approach to support HCWs as second victims. This will be accomplished by first defining SVP and its relationship to patient safety. We will apply a health geography framework which incorporates the concepts of location, place, human interaction, movement and region to demonstrate the variability across care settings and the need for a systems approach to support HCWs. A human geography approaches to SVP would allow policymakers, leadership teams and managers within a health care setting to uniquely tailor their support systems to their individual contexts, which in turn will create a workplace culture of safety that builds on the organization’s unique qualities.

The role and tasks performed by hospital volunteers (HV), their relationship with other stakeholders and the management of volunteers, are controversial topics, not widely explored in literature. Through an exploratory study, which incorporated the collection and analysis of qualitative data, involving 46 interviews with volunteers, staff and hospital administration from three hospitals in Portugal, we analyze hospital volunteers, as well as the tasks they perform, how these tasks are assigned, and how they relate to other stakeholders. As a result, we conclude that the job definition of HV is generic, open to different interpretations and that the assigned functions of HV are not known from all stakeholders. This problem can have negative repercussions in the relationship between volunteers and health professionals, potentially fostering conflict. Nevertheless, most respondents are satisfied with the current format of volunteer management.