Survey on Management Score and Quality Adjustment in Medical and Nursing Services (Japanese)

Medical and nursing services are one of the "non-market" type services: the majority of production costs are publicly funded and their administrations are regulated. In non-market industries, providers are often entitled with tax benefits and subsidies, which may result in loose management under soft (i.e., not tight) budgets. Thus, it is essential to measure and monitor the management of the medical and nursing services. The management score established by Bloom and Van Reenen (2007) measures process management, target management, and human resource management through face-to-face interviews. Integrating this non-financial information across industries and countries, they have established a common standard of management score, which has recently been applied to the healthcare sector. While a wide range of organizational structures are allowed in Japan, the price of each medical or nursing service is set by law. Therefore, the quality of each service should not vary. On the other hand, past research has observed significant differences in quality and productivities. This paper attempts to clarify the effect of the managerial difference on these observed service differences. We also propose a standardized face-to-face questionnaire format based on Bloom and Van Reenen (2007) to help further research on managerial practices in the healthcare sector.