Effectiveness in professional organizations: the impact of surgeons and surgical staff organizations on the quality of care in hospitals

Abstract

In this research, we examine the relative importance of different structural units in a professional organization, the hospital, as they affect organizational effectiveness. The difficulties of measuring effectiveness in a complex professional organization are discussed, and an adjusted measure of surgical outcome is developed. Data are drawn from a prospective study of over 8,000 surgical patients treated by more than 500 surgeons in 15 hospitals throughout the nation. Two different types of analyses are presented, both indicating that hospital features have more impact on surgical outcomes than do surgeon characteristics. The second analysis assesses the relative importance of specific attributes of the hospital, surgical staff organization, and surgeon characteristics on surgical outcomes.