title: An Analysis of Organizational Performance Based on Hospital Specialization Level and Strategy Type.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hospitals are studying the focused factory concept and attempting to increase their power in a competitive industry by becoming more specialized.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study uses the information theory index (ITI) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) to analyze the extent of specialization by Korean hospitals that receive national health insurance reimbursements. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to assess the impact of hospital specialization on the following four aspects of operational performance: productivity, profitability, efficiency and quality of care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that a focused strategy (high HHI) improves the income and adjusted number of patients per specialist through the efficient utilization of human resources. However, a diversified strategy (high ITI) improves the hospital utilization ratio, income per bed and adjusted number of patients per bed (controlling for material resources such as beds). In addition, as the concentration index increases, case-mix mortality rates and referral rates decrease, indicating that specialization has a positive relationship with quality of care.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Healthcare Informatics, Korea Polytechnics, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Han-Sung
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Healthcare Management, Graduate School, Eulji University, Gyeonggi, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Hoon
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Health Administration, Cheju Halla University, Jeju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Sik
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Management & Administration, Baekseok Arts University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sook-Jung
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hyun
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D056910:Republic of Korea