Managerial innovation in the hospital: an analysis of the diffusion of hospital cost-accounting systems.
Currently much interest is focused on the uses of cost-accounting systems within the hospital industry. Proponents frequently contend that such systems will help hospitals successfully adapt to new methods of financial reimbursement because they are essential to a number of major management functions, including competitive bidding, cost management, pricing, and profitability assessment. This article reports the results of a study conducted to examine the extent to which hospitals in a major market are actually beginning to use standard cost-accounting systems and identify factors that either aid or hinder the diffusion of these methods. Chief financial officers from 94 hospitals (83 percent response rate) participated in the study during the summer of 1986 where less than half of the hospitals (43 percent) had recently purchased a cost-accounting system. Detailed information about the interface of cost-accounting systems with other application systems and their specific management uses is reported.
D000066:Accounting / Q000379:methods*; D002641:Chicago; D003361:Cost Allocation / Q000379:methods*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005376:Financial Management / Q000379:methods*; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital / Q000379:methods*; D009934:Organization and Administration; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D013223:Statistics as Topic