Publications

Research Summary

Health Care Management

Samuel S. Chun is studying pricing schemes for various health care services. He focuses on two aspects of the health care delivery problem. First, how do physicians respond to financial incentives and what are the characteristics of a pricing scheme which incents... View Details

02 Jan 2020
News

Hospitals Merged. Quality Didn’t Improve.

July – August 2011
Article

Deliberate Learning to Improve Performance in Dynamic Service Settings: Evidence from Hospital Intensive Care Units

By: I. M. Nembhard and A. L. Tucker

Dynamic service settings-characterized by workers who interact with customers to deliver services in a rapidly changing, uncertain, and complex environment (e.g., hospitals)-play an important role in the economy. Organizational learning studies in these settings have... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Performance Improvement; Quality; Groups and Teams; Cooperation; Health Industry

November 2010
Case

Children's Hospital Boston (A)

By: Scott A. Snook and Jeffrey C. Connor

Five year old Matty died at Children's Hospital Boston as a result of elective neurosurgery to "cure" his epilepsy. The organizational system, not the surgery, had failed. During post-operative recovery, he experienced a prolonged seizure that resulted in his death.... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Management Systems; Management Teams; Health Industry

June 2021
Article

Developing a Value Framework: Utilizing Administrative Data to Assess an Enhanced Care Initiative

By: Casey J. Allen, Jarrod S. Eska, Nikhil G. Thaker, Thomas W. Feeley, Robert S. Kaplan, Ryan W. Huey, Ching-Wei D. Tzeng, Jeffrey E. Lee, Steven J. Frank, Thomas A. Aloia, Vijaya Gottumukkala and Matthew H.G. Katz

We used national administrative data to assess multiple domains of value associated with enhanced recovery pathways for patients undergoing pancreatic surgery. Value metrics included in-hospital mortality, complication rates, length of stay (LOS), 30-day readmission... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Outcome or Result; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement

Article

The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions

By: Carlos Dobkin, Amy Finkelstein, Raymond Kluender and Matthew Notowidigdo

We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets: survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance,... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Insurance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Health Care and Treatment

December 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy 2016

By: Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley and Toyin J. Okanlawon

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) began as a stand-alone hospital in the heart of downtown Philadelphia in 1855. By 2016 the CHOP Care Network stretched across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area, providing a wide range of services... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Strategy; Health Industry; Philadelphia

June 2020
Article

Evaluation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Integration with Hospital Electronic Health Records by US County-Level Opioid Prescribing Rates

By: A Jay Holmgren and Nate Apathy

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) have become a widely embraced policy solution to the opioid epidemic in the US. PDMPs offer prescribers a comprehensive view of patients’ controlled substance prescription history and can be used to monitor and reduce... View Details

Keywords: Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs; PDMPs; Electronic Health Records; Hospitals; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Integration; Performance Evaluation

28 Jun 2010
HBS Case

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Health-care reform is more than a political football. For twenty years it's been a ground-level topic of increasing importance for the administrators, physicians, nurses, and frontline employees who interact with patients every day. "Cincinnati Children's View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

June 2013
Case

Ron Ventura at Mitchell Memorial Hospital

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heide Abelli

Mitchell Memorial Hospital is a 750-bed regional academic medical center in Ohio. Andy Prescott, Chief of the Cardiovascular Center, is reviewing the performance evaluations of his star vascular surgeon Ron Ventura. The evaluations, the result of a 360-degree... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Conflict Management; Behavior; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Ohio

18 Mar 2014
News

Massachusetts' Hard Look at Hospital Mergers

17 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

What Hospitals Must Learn to Compete

Harvard Business School professors Raffaella Sadun and Leemore Dafny are both economists who have studied hospitals extensively—Sadun’s research has looked at the economics of management, while Dafny’s examines interactions between health... View Details

Keywords: by Alumni Bulletin Staff; Health

December 1986 (Revised August 1988)
Case

LifeSpan Inc.: Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Raises the powerful issues of measuring marketing performance in a not-for-profit services setting. Also raises several interesting ethical issues. LifeSpan Inc., a Minneapolis based not-for-profit organization is the parent holding company of three hospitals and... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Health Care and Treatment; Service Industry; Health Industry; Minneapolis

March 2018
Article

Hospital Budget Systems are Holding Back Innovation

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Michael S. Jellinek and Derek A. Haas

Nearly 800 digital health startups were funded in 2017, an all-time high. Each of the new companies offers the hope of transforming the performance of the U.S. health care system. The audience for such innovation wants to be receptive: A recent American Hospital... View Details

21 Nov 2014
News

Teaching Hospitals Are the Best Place to Test Health Innovation

Keywords: health care; innovation; product development; collaboration; efficiency; Hospitals; Hospitals

07 Jan 2019
News

Decreases In Readmissions Credited To Medicare’s Program To Reduce Hospital Readmissions Have Been Overstated

April 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1992, The

Brigham and Women's Hospital is a highly successful teaching hospital in 1992. However, the hospital sector is undergoing a major transition and the hospital faces uncertainty about changing demographic trends, new types of competitors, and technological and scientific... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Education Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

June 2007
Article

Implementing New Practices: An Empirical Study of Organizational Learning in Hospital Intensive Care Units

By: A. L. Tucker, I. Nembhard and A. C. Edmondson

Keywords: Practice; Organizations; Learning; Health; Information; Health Industry

January 1991 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Prepare/21 at Beth Israel Hospital (A)

In response to escalating cost pressures throughout the hospital industry, the management of Beth Israel Hospital (BI) decided to implement a productivity plan to cut their operating costs. They chose the Scanlon Plan, an employee participation and incentive program... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost Management; Employees; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry