Factors affecting development of crisis management mechanisms in hospitals

The growing competition among hospitals has almost dissolved hospitals’ absolute dominance over the physician–patient relationship. Many existing systems or regulations governing public organizations are so rigid that outstanding physicians in public hospitals may easily depart or be head hunted by competitors. Therefore, there will be more and starker challenges ahead of public hospitals. Through collection and analysis of a large sample, we attempt to apply a unique data validation method—nonlinear fuzzy neural network model to investigate the research issue. The questionnaire was administered to chairmen or physicians taking administrative positions in Taiwan’s public hospitals. The empirical results are as follows: Uncertainty of the hospital business environment is positively correlated with development of crisis management mechanisms; Operation of crisis management mechanisms is positively correlated with establishment of a medical risk management system; Organizational culture in public hospitals is disadvantageous to operation of crisis management mechanisms. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013