Comparing change readiness, quality improvement, and cost management among Veterans Administration, for-profit, and nonprofit hospitals.

Health care organizations throughout the country are facing increasing pressure to improve their quality of care while reducing cost. This article describes a model of organizational change and develops a change readiness matrix that managers can use to benchmark their organization's performance on three dimensions: (1) change readiness, (2) quality improvement, and (3) cost management. The model and the matrix combine to offer managers a framework for pursuing organizational change and operational innovation within their organization. A survey methodology is used to compare VA hospitals (n = 44), for-profit hospitals (n = 108), and nonprofit hospitals (n = 449) on the three performance dimensions. The results indicate that Veterans Administration hospitals react differently than either for-profit or nonprofit hospitals on these dimensions. However, responses from for-profit and nonprofit hospitals were not significantly different from each other. Additional insights are presented into how hospitals in general can facilitate the organizational change process.