Hospital leadership for quality:Theory and practice:II. Quality performance evaluation

Abstract

Hospitals need excellent leadership to be efficient in the use of scarce stakeholderresources and to be effective in the competitive provision of services to multiplecustomers. This paper is the second report on a study conducted with the cooperationof the executive team at a large government-funded hospital in Brisbane, Australia.The overall study focused on linking the leadership concepts and attributes of themembers of the executive with an overall evaluation of quality practice in the hospital.The first paper reported the leadership results. This paper reports the quality practiceand its links with leadership. The study revealed use of data, understanding ofprocesses and the formation of supplier partnerships as the areas of hospital activitymost limiting the ability to improve. Little impact of leadership attributes was found,contrary to studies conducted elsewhere. This may be due to the strong influence ofdifferent professional groups within the hospital, since domains of leadership influencelargely coincided with these groups.