10 Future Directions in Research on Performance Improvement in Health Care Organizations

摘要

Given the rapid rate of change in the health care industry, many important research topics related to performance improvement remain for future research. In this section, we discuss research opportunities related to the six components of the Model of Transformational Performance Improvement. We group our discussion of future research topics into two broad categories of external environment-related and internal organization-related. The external environment of a health care organization impacts the Model of Transformational Performance Improvement's components of (1) using system-level goals to motivate improvement efforts, (2) using system-level measures to gauge performance, and (3) accounting for the interdependence among the organizations involved in providing patient care. We also consider future research topics impacted by the organization's internal activities for the remaining model components of (4) having a coherent portfolio of improvement projects, (5) developing an engine for improvement, and (6) spreading best practices throughout the organization. These topics are listed below in Table 10.1.