Boulding, W., Glickman, S. W., Manary, M. P., Schulman, K. A., &Staelin, R. (2011). Relationship between patient satisfacti

Boulding, W., Glickman, S. W., Manary, M. P., Schulman, K. A., &Staelin, R. (2011). Relationship between patient satisfaction with inpatient care and hospital readmission within 30 days.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether hospitals where patients report higher overall satisfaction with their interactions among the hospital and staff and specifically their experience with the discharge process are more likely to have lower 30-day readmission rates after adjustment for hospital clinical performance. STUDY DESIGN: Among patients 18 years or older, an observational analysis was conducted using Hospital Compare data on clinical performance, patient satisfaction, and 30-day risk-standardized readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia for the period July 2005 through June 2008. METHODS: A hospital-level multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed for each of 3 clinical conditions to determine the relationship between patient-reported measures of their satisfaction with the hospital stay and staff and the discharge process and 30-day readmission rates, while controlling for clinical performance. RESULTS: In samples ranging from 1798 hospitals for acute myocardial infarction to 2562 hospitals for pneumonia, higher hospital-level patient satisfaction scores (overall and for discharge planning) were independently associated with lower 30-day readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] for readmission per interquartile improvement in hospital score, 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-0.99), heart failure (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.95-0.97), and pneumonia (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.99). These improvements were between 1.6 and 4.9 times higher than those for the 3 clinical performance measures. CONCLUSIONS: Higher overall patient satisfaction and satisfaction with discharge planning are associated with lower 30-day risk-standardized hospital readmission rates after adjusting for clinical quality. This finding suggests that patient-centered information can have an important role in the evaluation and management of hospital performance.

Boulding, W., Glickman, S. W., Manary, M. P., Schulman, K. A., &Staelin, R. (2011). Relationship between patient satisfaction with inpatient care and hospital readmission within 30 days. The American journal of managed care, 17(1), 41-48.

Neuman, W. R., Park, Y. J., & Panek, E. (2012). Info capacity| Tracking the flow of information into the home: An empirical assessment of the digital revolution in the US from 1960–2005.

This study analyzes the increasing dominance of electronic media in the American media diet and a growing discrepancy between supply and demand in the digital cornucopia. Drawing on the communication flow methodology pioneered by Ithiel Pool in the 1980s, the study tracks U.S. industry data on technology penetration and household behavior from 1960 to 2005 to reveal a transition from “push” to “pull” media dynamics.

Neuman, W. R., Park, Y. J., & Panek, E. (2012). Info capacity| Tracking the flow of information into the home: An empirical assessment of the digital revolution in the US from 1960–2005. International Journal of Communication, 6, 20.

Tang, Y. T. (2008). The relationship between use of humor by leaders and R&D employee innovative behavior: Evidence from Taiwan. Asia Pacific Management Review, 13(3), 635-653.

Leadership has been found to affect individual and organizational innovation. Use of humor is a characteristic of leadership, and has been identified as a moderator of leadership style and individual or unit-level performance. Yet, the link between use of humor by leaders and employee innovative behavior has not been examined. This study examines the relationships between use of humor by leaders, employee communication, group cohesiveness, and employee innovative behavior, using a survey of 239 employees of R&D departments in 31 of Taiwan’s manufacturing firms. Results indicate that the use of humor by leaders made a significant positive contribution to employee innovative behavior. These relationships were mediated by both employee communication and group cohesiveness. Research and managerial implications are also discussed.

Tang, Y. T. (2008). The relationship between use of humor by leaders and R&D employee innovative behavior: Evidence from Taiwan. Asia Pacific Management Review, 13(3), 635-653.

10.6126/APMR.2008.13.3.06

Jha, A. K., Orav, E. J., Zheng, J., &Epstein, A. M. (2008). Patients& #39; perception of hospital care in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(18), 1921-1931.

Background

Patients’ perceptions of their care, especially in the hospital setting, are not well known. Data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey provide a portrait of patients’ experiences in U.S. hospitals.

Methods

We assessed the performance of hospitals across multiple domains of patients’ experiences. We examined whether key characteristics of hospitals that are thought to enhance patients’ experiences (i.e., a high ratio of nurses to patient-days, for-profit status, and nonacademic status) were associated with a better experience for patients. We also examined whether a hospital’s performance on the HCAHPS survey was related to its performance on indicators of the quality of clinical care.

Results

We found moderately high levels of satisfaction with care (e.g., on average, 67.4% of a hospital’s patients said that they would definitely recommend the hospital), with a high degree of correlation among the measures of patients’ experiences (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.94). As compared with hospitals in the bottom quartile of the ratio of nurses to patient-days, those in the top quartile had a somewhat better performance on the HCAHPS survey (e.g., 63.5% vs. 70.2% of patients responded that they “would definitely recommend” the hospital; P<0.001). Hospitals with a high level of patient satisfaction provided clinical care that was somewhat higher in quality for all conditions examined. For example, those in the top quartile of HCAHPS ratings performed better than those in the bottom quartile with respect to the care that patients received for acute myocardial infarction (actions taken to provide appropriate care as a proportion of all opportunities for providing such actions, 95.8% vs. 93.1% in unadjusted analyses; P<0.001) and for pneumonia (90.5% vs. 88.6% in unadjusted analyses, P<0.001).

Conclusions

This portrait of patients’ experiences in U.S. hospitals offers insights into areas that need improvement, suggests that the same characteristics of hospitals that lead to high nurse-staffing levels may be associated with better experiences for patients, and offers evidence that hospitals can provide both a high quality of clinical care and a good experience for the patient.

Jha, A. K., Orav, E. J., Zheng, J., &Epstein, A. M. (2008). Patients’ perception of hospital care in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(18), 1921-1931.

DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa0804116

Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177-181.

“An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that persons who undergo an unpleasant initiation to become members of a group increase their liking for the group; that is, they find the group more attractive than do persons who become members without going through a severe initiation. This hypothesis was derived from Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance.” 3 conditions were employed: reading of “embarrassing material” before a group, mildly embarrassing material to be read, no reading. “The results clearly verified the hypothesis.”

Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177-181.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0047195

Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G. J. (2009). Why do dominant personalities attain influence in face-to-face groups? The competence-signaling effects of trait dominance.

Individuals high in the personality trait dominance consistently attain high levels of influence in groups. Why they do is unclear, however, because most group theories assert that people cannot attain influence simply by behaving assertively and forcefully; rather, they need to possess superior task abilities and leadership skills. In the present research, the authors proposed that individuals high in trait dominance attain influence because they behave in ways that make them appear competent–even when they actually lack competence. Two studies examined task groups using a social relations analysis of peer perceptions (D. A. Kenny & L. LaVoie, 1984). The authors found that individuals higher in trait dominance were rated as more competent by fellow group members, outside peer observers, and research staff members, even after controlling for individuals’ actual abilities. Furthermore, frequency counts of discrete behaviors showed that dominance predicts the enactment of competence-signaling behaviors, which in turn predicts peer ratings of competence. These findings extend researchers’ understanding of trait dominance, hierarchies in groups, and perceptions of competence and abilities.

Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G. J. (2009). Why do dominant personalities attain influence in face-to-face groups? The competence-signaling effects of trait dominance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(2), 491-503.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014201

Davis, J. I., Senghas, A., Brandt, F., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). The effects of BOTOX injections on emotional experience. Emotion, 10(3), 433-440.

Although it was proposed over a century ago that feedback from facial expressions influence emotional experience, tests of this hypothesis have been equivocal. Here we directly tested this facial feedback hypothesis (FFH) by comparing the impact on self-reported emotional experience of BOTOX injections (which paralyze muscles of facial expression) and a control Restylane injection (which is a cosmetic filler that does not affect facial muscles). When examined alone, BOTOX participants showed no pre- to posttreatment changes in emotional responses to our most positive and negative video clips. Between-groups comparisons, however, showed that relative to controls, BOTOX participants exhibited an overall significant decrease in the strength of emotional experience. This result was attributable to (a) a pre- versus postdecrease in responses to mildly positive clips in the BOTOX group and (b) an unexpected increase in responses to negative clips in the Restylane control group. These data suggest that feedback from facial expressions is not necessary for emotional experience, but may influence emotional experience in some circumstances. These findings point to specific directions for future work clarifying the expression-experience relationship.

Davis, J. I., Senghas, A., Brandt, F., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). The effects of BOTOX injections on emotional experience. Emotion, 10(3), 433-440.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018690

Howrigan, D. P., &MacDonald, K. B. (2008). Humor as a mental fitness indicator. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(4), 652-666.

To explain the pervasive role of humor in human social interaction and among mating partner preferences, Miller (2000a) proposed that intentional humor evolved as an indicator of intelligence. To test this, we looked at the relationships among rater-judged humor, general intelligence, and the Big Five personality traits in a sample of 185 college-age students (115 women, 70 men). General intelligence positively predicted rater-judged humor, independent of the Big Five personality traits. Extraversion also predicted rater-judged humor, although to a lesser extent than general intelligence. General intelligence did not interact with the sex of the participant in predicting rating scores on the humor production tasks. The current study lends support to the prediction that effective humor production acts as an honest indicator of intelligence in humans. In addition, extraversion, and to a lesser extent, openness, may reflect motivational traits that encourage humor production.

Howrigan, D. P., &MacDonald, K. B. (2008). Humor as a mental fitness indicator. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(4), 652-666.

https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490800600411

Grant, A. M., &Hofmann, D. A. (2011). Outsourcing inspiration: The performance effects of ideological messages from leaders and beneficiaries.

Although ideological messages are thought to inspire employee performance, research has shown mixed results. Typically, ideological messages are delivered by leaders, but employees may be suspicious of ulterior motives—leaders may merely be seeking to inspire higher performance. As such, we propose that these messages are often more effective when outsourced to a more neutral third party—the beneficiaries of employees’ work. In Study 1, a field quasi-experiment with fundraisers, ideological messages from a beneficiary—but not from two leaders—increased performance. In Study 2, a laboratory experiment with an editing task, participants achieved higher task and citizenship performance when an ideological message was delivered by a speaker portrayed as a beneficiary vs. a leader, mediated by suspicion. In Study 3, a laboratory experiment with a marketing task, the beneficiary source advantage was contingent on message content: beneficiaries motivated higher task and citizenship performance than leaders with prosocial messages but not achievement messages.

Grant, A. M., &Hofmann, D. A. (2011). Outsourcing inspiration: The performance effects of ideological messages from leaders and beneficiaries. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 116(2), 173-187.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2011.06.005