Noh Eunjeong, Potthoff Sandra, Begun James W
Eunjeong Noh, is PhD Candidate, Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. E-mail:
Health Care Manage Rev. 2020 Oct/Dec;45(4):321-331. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000230.
Hospitals face growing pressures and opportunities to engage with partner organizations in efforts to improve population health at the community level. Variation has been observed in the degree to which hospitals develop such partnerships.
The aim of this study was to generate a taxonomy of hospitals based on their partnerships with external organizations, employing the theoretical notion of organizations' focus on exploration versus exploitation.
With 1,238 valid cases from the 2015 American Hospital Association Population Health Survey, our study uses items asking about the level of partnership strength for 36 named partner types. Excluding three variables with low reliability, 33 variables are classified into six partner groups by factor analysis. Then, cluster analysis is conducted to generate a taxonomy of hospitals based on their partnerships with the six partner groups.
Of 1,238 hospitals, 26.1% are classified as exploratory hospitals that develop more collaborative relationships with partners outside the medical sector. Exploitative hospitals (18.3%) focus on relationships with traditional medical sector partners. Ambidextrous hospitals (27.0%) develop partnerships both in and outside the medical sector. Finally, independent hospitals (28.6%) do not establish strong partnerships. Larger hospitals, not-for-profit hospitals, and teaching hospitals are more likely to be classified as exploratory.
The four-cluster taxonomy can provide hospital and health system leaders and managers with a better understanding of the wide variation in partnerships that hospitals establish and insights into their different strategic options with regard to partnership development.
医院在与合作伙伴组织合作以改善社区层面的人群健康方面面临着越来越大的压力和机遇。已观察到医院在发展此类伙伴关系的程度上存在差异。
本研究的目的是基于医院与外部组织的伙伴关系，运用组织对探索与利用的理论概念，生成医院的分类法。
我们的研究使用了2015年美国医院协会人群健康调查中的1238个有效案例，通过询问36种指定伙伴类型的伙伴关系强度水平的项目进行研究。排除三个可靠性较低的变量后，通过因子分析将33个变量分为六个伙伴组。然后，进行聚类分析，以根据医院与六个伙伴组的伙伴关系生成医院的分类法。
在1238家医院中，26.1%被归类为探索型医院，它们与医疗部门以外的伙伴建立了更多的合作关系。利用型医院（18.3%）专注于与传统医疗部门伙伴的关系。兼具探索与利用能力的医院（27.0%）在医疗部门内外都建立了伙伴关系。最后，独立型医院（28.6%）没有建立强大的伙伴关系。规模较大的医院、非营利性医院和教学医院更有可能被归类为探索型。
四类分类法可以为医院和卫生系统的领导及管理人员提供更好的理解，使他们了解医院建立的伙伴关系的广泛差异，并深入了解其在伙伴关系发展方面的不同战略选择。
