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Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals

Demand for foreign nurses and medical staff is rapidly increasing due to the severe labor shortage in U.S. hospitals triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, empirical studies on the effect of the racial diversity of medical staff on hospital operations are still lacking. This research gap is th...

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Autores principales: Lee, C. Christopher, Cho, Young Sik, Breen, Diosmedy, Monroy, Jessica, Seo, Donghwi, Min, Yong-Taek
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10376650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37504011
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13070564
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author Lee, C. Christopher
Cho, Young Sik
Breen, Diosmedy
Monroy, Jessica
Seo, Donghwi
Min, Yong-Taek
author_facet Lee, C. Christopher
Cho, Young Sik
Breen, Diosmedy
Monroy, Jessica
Seo, Donghwi
Min, Yong-Taek
author_sort Lee, C. Christopher
collection PubMed
description Demand for foreign nurses and medical staff is rapidly increasing due to the severe labor shortage in U.S. hospitals triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, empirical studies on the effect of the racial diversity of medical staff on hospital operations are still lacking. This research gap is thus investigated based on the foreign medical staff working in 3870 U.S. hospitals. Results show that workforce racial diversity has a significantly positive relationship with hospital operational efficiency regarding occupancy rate, manpower productivity, capacity productivity, and case mix index. Notably, this study empirically supports that increasing the ratio of foreign nurses positively affects the overall operational efficiency of hospitals. In addition, the study results also indicate that the hospital location, size, ownership, and teaching status act as significant control variables for the relationship between racial diversity and hospital efficiency. These results imply that hospitals with these specific operating conditions need to pay more attention to racial diversity in the workplace, as they are structurally more sensitive to the relationship between racial diversity and operational efficiency. In short, the findings of this study suggest that hospital efficiency can be operationally improved by implementing workforce ethnic diversity. For this reason, hospital stakeholders and healthcare policymakers are expected to benefit from this study’s findings. Above all, the results of this study imply that if an organization adapts to extreme external environmental changes (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) through appropriate organizational restructuring (i.e., expanding the workforce racial diversity by hiring foreign medical staff), the organization can gain a competitive advantage, a claim that is supported by contingency theory. Further, investors are increasingly interested in ESG, especially companies that embody ethical and socially conscious workplaces, including a diverse and inclusive workforce. Thereby, seeking racial diversity in the workforce is now seen as a fundamental benchmark for organizational behavior that predicts successful ESG business practices, a claim that is supported by stakeholder theory. Therefore, in conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that workforce racial diversity is no longer an optional consideration but should be considered as one of the essential determinants of competitive advantage in organizations, particularly in the healthcare sector.
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spelling pubmed-103766502023-07-29 Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals Lee, C. Christopher Cho, Young Sik Breen, Diosmedy Monroy, Jessica Seo, Donghwi Min, Yong-Taek Behav Sci (Basel) Article Demand for foreign nurses and medical staff is rapidly increasing due to the severe labor shortage in U.S. hospitals triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, empirical studies on the effect of the racial diversity of medical staff on hospital operations are still lacking. This research gap is thus investigated based on the foreign medical staff working in 3870 U.S. hospitals. Results show that workforce racial diversity has a significantly positive relationship with hospital operational efficiency regarding occupancy rate, manpower productivity, capacity productivity, and case mix index. Notably, this study empirically supports that increasing the ratio of foreign nurses positively affects the overall operational efficiency of hospitals. In addition, the study results also indicate that the hospital location, size, ownership, and teaching status act as significant control variables for the relationship between racial diversity and hospital efficiency. These results imply that hospitals with these specific operating conditions need to pay more attention to racial diversity in the workplace, as they are structurally more sensitive to the relationship between racial diversity and operational efficiency. In short, the findings of this study suggest that hospital efficiency can be operationally improved by implementing workforce ethnic diversity. For this reason, hospital stakeholders and healthcare policymakers are expected to benefit from this study’s findings. Above all, the results of this study imply that if an organization adapts to extreme external environmental changes (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) through appropriate organizational restructuring (i.e., expanding the workforce racial diversity by hiring foreign medical staff), the organization can gain a competitive advantage, a claim that is supported by contingency theory. Further, investors are increasingly interested in ESG, especially companies that embody ethical and socially conscious workplaces, including a diverse and inclusive workforce. Thereby, seeking racial diversity in the workforce is now seen as a fundamental benchmark for organizational behavior that predicts successful ESG business practices, a claim that is supported by stakeholder theory. Therefore, in conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that workforce racial diversity is no longer an optional consideration but should be considered as one of the essential determinants of competitive advantage in organizations, particularly in the healthcare sector. MDPI 2023-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10376650/ /pubmed/37504011 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13070564 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lee, C. Christopher
Cho, Young Sik
Breen, Diosmedy
Monroy, Jessica
Seo, Donghwi
Min, Yong-Taek
Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title_full Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title_fullStr Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title_short Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
title_sort relationship between racial diversity in medical staff and hospital operational efficiency: an empirical study of 3870 u.s. hospitals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10376650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37504011
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13070564
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