Hospital Management Strategy in Digital Era

터지털 시대의 병원경영전략 수립에 관한 연구 - 병원경영자의 경영개선활동에 관한 인식을 중심으로 -

This study purports to examine the current management and information technology related strategy of Korean hospitals and suggest the effective management strategy in the 21st century when is digital era. Specifically the study tries to analyze the changing trends of strategic orientation and investigate the general management and information technology strategy of Korean hospitals. Self-administered Questionnaires were distributed to 721 hospitals nationwide and finally 98 Questionnaires were analyzed for the study. The results of the study are as follows : 1) Half of the respondent hospitals reported that they have an analyzer orientation in 2000, whereas 19.4% were prospectors, reactors 16.4%, and defenders 14.3%. However, the respondent hospitals intended to have a prospector orientation in the future (2002), while 29.6% planned on being analyzers, 17.3% reactors, and 3.1% defenders. 2) Hospital services for improving patient satisfaction were the most common. strategy for the respondent hospitals, followed by cost containment, organizational restructuring, employee education, purchasing system change, specialization of clinical services, quality improvement of medical care, strengthening the networking with the stakeholders, public relations and marketing strategy, diversification, and installing the information system. However, the strategies of annual salary system, retrenchment of unprofitable services, merit payment based on performance were still not popular for the respondent hospitals. 3) As for the strategies related with information technology, most hospitals have not implemented actively, except for the establishment of home-pages, order communication systems, and insurance claims through electronic data interchange system. 4) There were significant differences in the level of strategy implementation in terms of the ownership, bed size, financial performance, and the top managers I knowledge of information technology. The larger bed size, the higher financial performance, the better knowledge of information technology the top managers have, the more strategies the respondent hospitals implemented. The managerial and political implications for Korean hospitals in digital era were also discussed.