news item

News

New publication

The importance of organizational design for the quality of patient care

Iben, Henrike and Børge have published a new paper called 'The importance of organizational design for the quality of patient care'.

The paper is published in a special issue about organization design within Økonomi and Politik.

Abstract: The design of an organization is unambiguously a determining factor in the success of its attempt to achieve its goals. Due to blanket national guidelines, Danish emergency departments exhibit a variety of designs with some changing it within a 24-hour period. To measure goal attainment, emergency departments look at mortality – the risk of dying after hospitalization – as a prominent factor in determining the quality of patient care. Quality of treatment, resources and their organizations, communication and decision-making processes constitute significant but previously overseen factors in determining the risk of dying. Taking point of departure in Danish emergency departments, we investigate the importance of organizational design in goal attainment, particularly the quality of patient care – the risk of dying after hospitalization. We provide an overview of essential organizational design elements: the basic organization and use of IT systems throughout a 24-hour period, and a generic tool to assess an organization’s design.

The paper, which is in Danish, can be read here: https://www.djoef-forlag.dk/openaccess/oep/files/2021/3_2021/3_2021_6.pdf