Abstract
With the rapid development of China’s public hospitals, many challenges have been brought to China’s public hospitals under the background of crisis. Faced with the crisis, how to shape the hospital process has become an important topic, which is of great theoretical and practical value. However, the existing hospital process research lacks systematic thinking in the context of crisis, pays insufficient attention to factors such as hospital operational efficiency and patient satisfaction, and the research on the recognition and reflection of hospital process shaping is preliminary. At the same time, the research objects of process shaping are mostly concentrated in commercial organizations, and there is insufficient attention to the process shaping of Chinese hospitals. Due to the fragmented characteristics of hospital process shaping research, there is a disconnection between hospital process shaping theoretical research and management practice, and hospital management practitioners lack the study of the systematic knowledge system of process shaping and the dynamic response in the context of crisis, resulting in hospitals process shaping practices have a low success rate.
What are the motivations for process shaping in China’s tertiary public hospitals (the highest-level hospitals in China), and what impact will it have on hospital process shaping? What are the factors in implementing hospital process shaping, and how do they affect the medical staff’s perception of process shaping? Combining 22 tertiary hospitals in China as the research objects, the author of this paper uses a questionnaire survey and qualitative interview research methods to summarize the importance to hospitals of crisis events in 22 sample hospitals and discusses in detail hospital operational efficiency, patient satisfaction, and hospital culture construction. Based on data analysis, through the arrangement of hospital process shaping ideas, the hospital process shaping simulation was carried out so as to modify the hospital process shaping ideas further. Explore and demonstrate the impact of crisis on hospital process shaping, the impact of process shaping on hospital operational efficiency, the moderating effect of patient satisfaction on hospital process shaping, and the moderating effect of hospital culture construction on hospital process shaping sustainability. The findings of this paper provide certain inspiration for the initiation and implementation of process shaping in Chinese public hospitals. Specifically, it includes the following points:
First, both historical reasons and development needs will cause crises. In the face of the development of Chinese hospitals, compared with commercial organizations, the Chinese medical industry may be affected more by institutional factors. In this case, process shaping is more pronounced in scope and effect. Chinese public hospitals should focus on the changes of crisis factors in the current and future development to achieve sustainable development of hospitals through process shaping.
Second, the initiation and implementation of hospital process shaping may have various impacts on the hospital’s governance structure, organizational structure, and business process. To ensure the smooth implementation of hospital process shaping, hospitals need to face process shaping planning and analysis based on management and pay attention to the medical staff’s cognition and feelings about process shaping. Hospitals should not only pay attention to the reasons for process shaping but also the process of process shaping; not only the impact of process shaping on hospitals but also the impact of process shaping on the medical staff.
Third, in hospital process shaping, the communication between departments plays an important role, directly affecting the medical staff’s willingness to participate in process shaping. Therefore, process shaping needs to pay attention to the importance of communication while completing the top-level design of the hospital. The communication about process shaping should not be limited to the top and middle managers of the hospital. It is necessary to emphasize that the communication between the middle managers and the general medical staff is helpful in increasing medical staff participation. Before initiating the hospital process shaping, training for middle and senior leaders should be carried out to facilitate the implementation of the change.