Qualitative Methods in Health Care Management

Health care management involves planning, coordinating and monitoring the delivery and financing of medical services. Hospital administrators and other health care managers work in an environment characterized by rising costs, innovations in care and medical technology and government regulations. Managers also work with multiple actors, including health care providers and third-party payers such as insurers. Health care management, in short, is a complex process. Fortunately, the qualitative decision tools used in other management fields can assist in health care administration.

Matching Problems and Methods

• As with any type of research or analysis, it is important to choose the appropriate decision tool for the problem or issue at hand. Whether health care managers are concerned with issues related to patient satisfaction with services, coordinating medical care among different providers, or understanding the larger regulatory environment within which health care is provided will help determine the qualitative method used.

  Qualitative decision tools and analytical methods applicable to health care management include brainstorming sessions, Nominal Group Technique, Delphi and focus groups.

Brainstorming

• In brainstorming sessions, managers convene a group of relevant people, such as medical providers and others, to understand emerging issues, assess impacts or consider strategic alternatives. During these sessions, members of the group present ideas, with brief explanations, for addressing the problems at hand. Through these sessions, managers hope to generate fresh ideas or new thinking for meeting new challenges. These sessions are significant, as medical advances and public policy changes frequently pose new challenges to modern health care systems.

Nominal Group Technique

• NGT is another group discussion convened to address a particular issue. During NGT, each individual group member independently develops a list of ideas surrounding the issue under discussion. Group members report one idea at a time, followed by discussion. After all members have presented their ideas and the group has discussed them, each member ranks the ideas presented. NGT is an iterative process, in which consensus emerges after rounds of idea discussion and ranking.

Expert Insight

• According to Peter Ginter, Linda Swayne and W.J. Duncan, authors of "Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations," brainstorming and NGT have great potential as decision tools in health care management. For example, the techniques can help health care managers understand and respond to women's growing preference for midwives as an alternative to OB/Gyns.

Delphi

• Delphi is a popular research technique for collection and analysis of qualitative data on issues related to the environment in which an organization operates. Under the Delphi method, health care managers seek opinions from a group of managers on a particular topic. After collecting the opinions, managers summarize them and send them back to the experts for further opinions and judgments. Several rounds of this generates a synthesis of opinions.

Focus Groups

• A popular research technique in marketing, a focus group is a group interview. The groups often range in size from eight to twelve people. In health care management, focus groups provide another means for discussing important issues or assessing patient satisfaction. Many hospitals use focus groups to understand their strengths and weaknesses from the point of view of patients. In another setting, focus groups of patients and practitioners can explore issues of service delivery.