The impact of management on hospital performance (9 December 2021)

Summary

There is a prevailing popular belief that expenditure on management by healthcare providers is wasteful, diverts resources from patient care, and distracts medical and nursing staff from getting on with their jobs. There is little existing evidence to support either this narrative or counter-claims. Asaria et al. explore the relationship between management and public sector hospital performance. They found no evidence of association either between quantity of management and management quality or directly between quantity of management and any of the measures of hospital performance. However, there is some evidence that higher-quality management is associated with better performance. NHS managers have limited discretion in performing their managerial functions, being tightly circumscribed by official guidance, targets, and other factors outside their control.

Content