The Opinion and Attitude of Hospital Managers toward Hospital Evaluation Program

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to survey the opinion and attitude of hospital managers toward the hospital evaluation program. Method : Managers of 157 hospitals which had participated in the hospital evaluation program were requested to respond to structured self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed with five categories: the preparation for the hospital evaluation program, the expertise levels of surveyors, the process and contents of the hospital evaluation program, the applying strategies for the result of the hospital evaluation to manager's work at their hospitals, and the main points to improve the hospital evaluation program. Result : 135 out of the 157 subjects completed the questionnaire, and the overall response rate was 86%. The hospital managers answered that they didn't have enough information such as the scoring rule of the standards, the process of the evaluation, and how to ask and get an answer to prepare the hospital evaluation. Furthermore, they estimated that the surveyors weren't specialized enough and didn't give a chance of checking over the result of the evaluation. In addition, they experienced that the result and feedback of the evaluation weren't enough information to be used as a guideline to improve in hospital management. Managers of the hospitals responded that the standards and method of survey in the hospital evaluation system should be reformed. Conclusion : Most of the responded managers seemed to have negative opinion on the hospital evaluation system, even though they were pushed up for interest in quality. Further studies and extensive evaluation of the hospital evaluation program are needed to bring up various information such as receptiveness and effectiveness.