Organizational and employee predictors of outcomes of long-stay nursing home residents.
OBJECTIVE
Use three types of functional ability as predictors of nursing home patient outcomes.


METHODS
Best-subsets regression analysis.


METHODS
10 nursing homes.


RESULTS
Initial functional ability was the most important predictor. Organizational variables such as workload, stress, and morale also explained some of the variance in patient outcomes. Characteristics of organizational structure predicted outcomes as well as employee self-reports and could be substituted for them without substantially reducing the explained variance.


CONCLUSIONS
Future research projects should explore the causal relationship between structure and outcomes.
Graduate Program in Hospital and Health Administration, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242.
J E
JE
Rohrer
K
K
Buckwalter
D
D
Russell
W
W
Chang
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008722:Methods; D009013:Morale; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012044:Regression Analysis; D016526:Workload