Organizational assessment in intensive care units (ICUs): construct development, reliability, and validity of the ICU nurse-physician questionnaire.

Health Services Research has a growing need for reliable and valid measures of managerial practices and organizational processes. A national study of 42 intensive care units involving over 1,700 respondents provides evidence for the reliability and validity of a comprehensive set of measures related to leadership, organizational culture, communication, coordination, problem solving-conflict management and team cohesiveness. The data also support the appropriateness of aggregating individual respondent data to the unit level. Implications for further research are discussed.