Nov 19 -- The U.S. Census Bureau plans to conduct the Management and Organizational Practices Survey-Hospitals (MOPS-HP) for survey year 2020 as a joint project with Harvard Business School. The MOPS-HP will utilize a subset of the Service Annual Survey mail-out sample and will collect data on management practices from Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) at general medical and surgical hospitals to assist in studying their relationship to clinical and financial performance. MOPS-HP data users are invited to submit comments to Census by January 19, 2021.
The pandemic has further highlighted the relevance of hospital management practices, especially as they relate to hospitals' abilities to respond to shocks to their organization and the health care system. In light of this, the Census Bureau proposes to collect data through MOPS-HP for reference years 2020 and 2019. It seeks to directly measure management practices and protocols before and during the pandemic to obtain a better understanding of how hospitals have had to adjust and pivot operations during this public health emergency.
The Census Bureau also plans to include two additional questions in the MOPS-HP content to help improve measurement of hospital preparedness. These questions will provide information on two elements of responsiveness, hospitals' coordinated deployment of frontline clinical workers and hospitals' ability to quickly respond to needed changes in standardized clinical protocols. In an effort to limit respondent burden while adding this content, adjustments were made to keep the total number of questions and estimated burden per response unchanged. The project plan, schedule, and collection strategy are being actively monitored, and adjustments will be made as necessary, as the Census Bureau is cognizant and respectful of the time, resources, and burden placed on CNOs during the pandemic.
Currently, no official statistics on management practices in hospitals exist. Past research shows these practices are related to health care providers' clinical and financial outcomes. This suggests that providing measures on management practices may potentially help the United States health care system, which is challenged by rising health care costs, increased demand from an aging society, and quality objectives. These data would permit users to examine relationships between management practices and financial outcomes using Census Bureau data (e.g., revenues) and relationships with clinical outcomes using external data sources. Additionally, these data would provide hospital administrators and managers information to evaluate their practices in comparison to other hospitals at an aggregate level.
The MOPS-HP content was proposed by external researchers with past experience in surveying hospitals on management practices. Some questions are adapted from the Management and Organizational Practices Survey (MOPS), conducted in the manufacturing sector, allowing for inter-sectoral comparisons. Content for the MOPS-HP includes performance monitoring, financial and clinical targets, and incentives. The 39 questions are grouped into the following sections: Tenure, Management Practices, Management Training, Management of Team Interactions, Staffing and Allocation of Human Resources, Standardized Clinical Protocols, Documentation of Patients' Medical Records, and Organizational Characteristics.
The MOPS-HP sample will consist of approximately 3,200 hospital locations for enterprises classified under General Medical and Surgical Hospitals (NAICS 6221) and sampled in the Service Annual Survey (SAS). Collection is scheduled to begin in the initial months of 2021.
FR notice inviting comment
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/11/19/2020-25580/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-to-the-office-of-management-and-budget-omb-for
Point of contact: Edward Watkins edward.e.watkins.iii@census.gov 301-763-4750
