TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mache, Stefanie
A1  - Scutaru, Cristian
A1  - Vitzthum, Karin
A1  - Quarcoo, David
A1  - Schöffel, Norman
A1  - Welte, Tobias
A1  - Klapp, Burghard F.
A1  - Groneberg, Jan David Alexander
T1  - Does type of hospital ownership influence physicians' daily work schedules? : An observational real-time study in German hospital departments
T2  - Human resources for health
N2  - Background: During the last two decades the German hospital sector has been engaged in a constant process of transformation. One obvious sign of this is the growing amount of hospital privatization. To date, most research studies have focused on the effects of privatization regarding financial outcomes and quality of care, leaving important organizational issues unexplored. Yet little attention has been devoted to the effects of privatization on physicians' working routines. The aim of this observational real-time study is to deliver exact data about physicians' work at hospitals of different ownership. By analysing working hours, further impacts of hospital privatization can be assessed and areas of improvement identified.
Methods: Observations were made by shadowing 100 physicians working in private, for-profit or non-profit as well as public hospital departments individually during whole weekday shifts in urban German settings. A total of 300 days of observations were conducted. All working activities were recorded, accurate to the second, by using a mobile personal computer.
Results: Results have shown significant differences in physicians' working activities, depending on hospital ownership, concerning working hours and time spent on direct and indirect patient care.
Conclusion: This is the first real-time analysis on differences in work activities depending on hospital ownership. The study provides an objective insight into physicians' daily work routines at hospitals of different ownership, with additional information on effects of hospital privatization.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/25828
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-258287
SN  - 1478-4491
VL  - 7
IS  - 41
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -