Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1107-A McGavran-Greenberg Campus Box 7411 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7411, USA.
Implement Sci. 2012 Apr 3;7:28. doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-7-28.
Middle managers have received little attention in extant health services research, yet they may have a key role in healthcare innovation implementation. The gap between evidence of effective care and practice may be attributed in part to poor healthcare innovation implementation. Investigating middle managers' role in healthcare innovation implementation may reveal an opportunity for improvement. In this paper, we present a theory of middle managers' role in healthcare innovation implementation to fill the gap in the literature and to stimulate research that empirically examines middle managers' influence on innovation implementation in healthcare organizations.
Extant healthcare innovation implementation research has primarily focused on the roles of physicians and top managers. Largely overlooked is the role of middle managers. We suggest that middle managers influence healthcare innovation implementation by diffusing information, synthesizing information, mediating between strategy and day-to-day activities, and selling innovation implementation.
Teamwork designs have become popular in healthcare organizations. Because middle managers oversee these team initiatives, their potential to influence innovation implementation has grown. Future research should investigate middle managers' role in healthcare innovation implementation. Findings may aid top managers in leveraging middle managers' influence to improve the effectiveness of healthcare innovation implementation.
在现有的卫生服务研究中，中层管理者几乎没有受到关注，但他们在医疗保健创新实施中可能起着关键作用。有效的医疗保健和实践之间的差距可能部分归因于医疗保健创新实施不力。研究中层管理者在医疗保健创新实施中的作用可能为改进提供机会。在本文中，我们提出了一个中层管理者在医疗保健创新实施中的角色理论，以填补文献中的空白，并激发实证研究，检验中层管理者对医疗保健组织中创新实施的影响。
现有的医疗保健创新实施研究主要集中在医生和高层管理者的作用上。中层管理者的作用在很大程度上被忽视了。我们认为，中层管理者通过传播信息、综合信息、在战略和日常活动之间进行协调以及推销创新实施来影响医疗保健创新的实施。
团队合作设计在医疗保健组织中越来越受欢迎。由于中层管理者负责监督这些团队举措，他们对创新实施的影响潜力也有所增加。未来的研究应该调查中层管理者在医疗保健创新实施中的作用。研究结果可能有助于高层管理者利用中层管理者的影响力，提高医疗保健创新实施的有效性。
