Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Brandon Simmons

Abstract

A hospital inpatient transportation process may decrease the time it takes patients to receive care and improve hospital quality and safety outcomes by providing timely and efficient patient handling. Grounded in agency theory, the purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the efficacy of the request for transport to measure against hospital objectives. Two specific program goals were to achieve an average 19-minute transport request-to-completion time and a 10-minute response from the time transport request is received when the transporter arrives. Data were collected from a survey, semistructured interviews, focus groups, and archival data analysis. The one sample t-test results indicated that the transportation department transport request-to-completion time was significantly less than the average 19-minute objective, t(62,260) = -302.82, p = .001. However, the time transport request received to the time the transporter arrived results indicated that the transportation department wait time was significantly greater than 10 minutes, t(62,260) = 33.60, p = .001. This result further showed that, on average, patients wait 2 minutes longer than the desired goal of 10 minutes. A key theme emerged from the thematic analysis indicating the lack of coordination caused a hospital staff perception of delay in transporter response. A key recommendation is to develop a structured hospital committee to reduce lab completion and doctor order delays to improve the time it takes to prepare the patient for transportation. The implications for positive social change include the potential for increased patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of care.

Download

Share

 
COinS