Health services management research : an official journal of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration
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Health Serv Manage Res · May 2007
The psychological contract: is the UK National Health Service a model employer?
The UK National Health Service (NHS) is facing recruitment challenges that mean it will need to become an 'employer of choice' if it is to continue to attract high-quality employees. This paper reports the findings from a study focusing on allied health professional staff (n = 67), aimed at establishing the expectations of the NHS inherent in their current psychological contract and to consider whether the government's drive to make the NHS a model employer meets those expectations. ⋯ Although the degree of employee satisfaction with the relational content of the psychological contract was relatively positive, there was, nevertheless, a mismatch between levels of importance placed on such aspects of the contract and levels of satisfaction, with employees increasingly placing greater emphasis on those items the NHS is having the greatest difficulty providing. Despite this apparent disparity between employee expectation and the fulfilment of those expectations, the overall health of the psychological contract was still high.
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Health Serv Manage Res · May 2007
Improving operational efficiency in an inner-city emergency department.
Saving lives in a high-volume, high-acuity inner-city trauma centre demands operational excellence. We conducted our research in an emergency department where treatment of Acute Coronary Syndrome is a critical operation. Our study results in a better understanding of patient flow, analysis of the waiting lines and an optimization model for labour cost minimization.