A model of the adaptive behavior of hospital administrators to the mandate to implement consumer participation

Jonathan M. Metsch, James E. Veney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study develops a model of the adaptive behavior of hospital administrators to the mandate to implement consumer participation. The model consists of three variable sets: Contextual variables describing the economic and social milieu of the hospitals; implementation variables which describe structural aspects of the advisory boards; and outcome variables related to the study program objective of facilitating both delivery and community utilization of ambulatory services. Specific findings are that a consumer chairman promotes consumer input and that in a setting where voluntary organizations are observed, consumer representatives that arc a mixed group of recipients of care and community group representatives are most effective. It was found that contextual variablcs predict outcome through a mediating set of implementation variables but that contextual variables and implementation variables arc also independent predictors of outcome. The study generated four hypotheses; that the attitude of the administrator toward consumer participation is directly related to the level of consumer input observed; that training is inversely related to outcome; that smaller programs arc more responsive to the mandate to implement consumer participation than larger programs; and that if the hospital needs community legitimation of its goals, higher consumer participation is observed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)338-350
Number of pages13
JournalMedical Care
Volume12
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1974
Externally publishedYes

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