Background: Long-term care facilities for older people play an important role as alternatives to family care in an aging society. This study aimed to assess staffing problems linked to emergency healthcare for residen...Background: Long-term care facilities for older people play an important role as alternatives to family care in an aging society. This study aimed to assess staffing problems linked to emergency healthcare for residents of these facilities, and to investigate the relationship between these problems and the characteristics of the facilities. Methods: The study surveyed managers of long-term care facilities for older people in a Japanese urban area between September and December 2014. The type of care facility, the number of staff and any problems providing or accessing emergency healthcare for the residents were evaluated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to explore the factors common to facilities reporting staffing problems linked to emergency healthcare of residents. Results: In total, 321 long-term care facilities were eligible for this study and 226 (70%) returned the questionnaire. We compared the characteristics of facilities reporting and not reporting staffing problems in emergency healthcare of residents. The type of care facility was significantly associated with staffing problems in emergency healthcare of residents both during the day (p < 0.01) and at night (p = 0.04). The facilities most likely to report problems were group homes for older people with dementia, because of staffing shortages. Conclusions: Problems in emergency healthcare systems in Japanese long-term care facilities for older people varied by type of care facility. Our data underscore the need for telemedicine and consideration of mergers between smaller facilities such as group homes for older people with dementia.展开更多
The hospital environment in Japan has changed drastically lately. Its unpredictability has increased the need for hospitals to select management strategies to clarify their course. However, research on Japanese hospit...The hospital environment in Japan has changed drastically lately. Its unpredictability has increased the need for hospitals to select management strategies to clarify their course. However, research on Japanese hospitals’ management strategies has only recently begun with too few studies in this area. Hence, this study clarifies the management strategies of Japanese private hospitals. It explores the hospital characteristics that affect strategy selection. A questionnaire was mailed to 5682 private medical institutions in 2013, and 459 responses with no missing data were used for analysis. Factor analysis yielded four factors: “bed conversion and downsizing (Factor 1),” “diversification of medical and nursing care (Factor 2),” “expansion in business scale (Factor 3),” and “expansion of income from non-insured medical care (Factor 4)”. Logistic regression analysis revealed that Year Founded (before 1965), Hospital Location (municipalities with populations smaller than 100,000), Hospital Type (psychiatric hospitals and mixed-care hospital), and Hospital Income and Expenditure (deficit) had significant positive impacts on the choice of Factor 1. For Factor 2, Hospital Type (sanatorium ward and mixed-care hospitals) and Hospital Income and Expenditure (constant surplus) had positive impacts. For Factor 3, Hospital Type (general hospital) and Bed Counts (more than 200) had positive impacts. For Factor4, Hospital Type (general hospital) had positive impacts. In other words, older hospitals, hospitals in rural areas, psychiatric hospitals, mixed-care hospitals, and hospitals with deficits tended to choose bed conversion and downsizing. Sanatorium ward hospitals, mixed-care hospitals, and hospitals with a constant surplus tended to choose diversification of medical and nursing care. General hospitals and large hospitals tended to choose expansion in scale, and general hospitals tended to choose expansion into non-insured medical care. The planning of mid- to long-term management strategies suitable for each hospital and their steady execution are required.展开更多
文摘Background: Long-term care facilities for older people play an important role as alternatives to family care in an aging society. This study aimed to assess staffing problems linked to emergency healthcare for residents of these facilities, and to investigate the relationship between these problems and the characteristics of the facilities. Methods: The study surveyed managers of long-term care facilities for older people in a Japanese urban area between September and December 2014. The type of care facility, the number of staff and any problems providing or accessing emergency healthcare for the residents were evaluated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to explore the factors common to facilities reporting staffing problems linked to emergency healthcare of residents. Results: In total, 321 long-term care facilities were eligible for this study and 226 (70%) returned the questionnaire. We compared the characteristics of facilities reporting and not reporting staffing problems in emergency healthcare of residents. The type of care facility was significantly associated with staffing problems in emergency healthcare of residents both during the day (p < 0.01) and at night (p = 0.04). The facilities most likely to report problems were group homes for older people with dementia, because of staffing shortages. Conclusions: Problems in emergency healthcare systems in Japanese long-term care facilities for older people varied by type of care facility. Our data underscore the need for telemedicine and consideration of mergers between smaller facilities such as group homes for older people with dementia.
文摘The hospital environment in Japan has changed drastically lately. Its unpredictability has increased the need for hospitals to select management strategies to clarify their course. However, research on Japanese hospitals’ management strategies has only recently begun with too few studies in this area. Hence, this study clarifies the management strategies of Japanese private hospitals. It explores the hospital characteristics that affect strategy selection. A questionnaire was mailed to 5682 private medical institutions in 2013, and 459 responses with no missing data were used for analysis. Factor analysis yielded four factors: “bed conversion and downsizing (Factor 1),” “diversification of medical and nursing care (Factor 2),” “expansion in business scale (Factor 3),” and “expansion of income from non-insured medical care (Factor 4)”. Logistic regression analysis revealed that Year Founded (before 1965), Hospital Location (municipalities with populations smaller than 100,000), Hospital Type (psychiatric hospitals and mixed-care hospital), and Hospital Income and Expenditure (deficit) had significant positive impacts on the choice of Factor 1. For Factor 2, Hospital Type (sanatorium ward and mixed-care hospitals) and Hospital Income and Expenditure (constant surplus) had positive impacts. For Factor 3, Hospital Type (general hospital) and Bed Counts (more than 200) had positive impacts. For Factor4, Hospital Type (general hospital) had positive impacts. In other words, older hospitals, hospitals in rural areas, psychiatric hospitals, mixed-care hospitals, and hospitals with deficits tended to choose bed conversion and downsizing. Sanatorium ward hospitals, mixed-care hospitals, and hospitals with a constant surplus tended to choose diversification of medical and nursing care. General hospitals and large hospitals tended to choose expansion in scale, and general hospitals tended to choose expansion into non-insured medical care. The planning of mid- to long-term management strategies suitable for each hospital and their steady execution are required.
