The interdisciplinary model of hospital administration: do health professionals and managers look at it in the same way?

BACKGROUND To assess health practitioners' views on the issue of hospital administration and explore possible conflicts. METHODS Questionnaire-based, multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used as the design,in which 124 doctors, 154 certified nurses and 15 hospital managers participated. RESULTS Only 39% of doctors and 51% of nurses were aware of the manager's basic degree and 70% of them considered it inadequate. Health sciences were chosen as the best basic degree for effective management by 65% of health practitioners. Moreover, 74% of doctors and 96% of nurses believed that an interdisciplinary board of directors, with the manager acting as a chairman could be the ideal administrative model. Even though this model was the current system in the interviewed hospitals, most health practitioners (87%) considered it ineffective. With regard to the acceptance of the manager as authority in the hospital, 76% of the doctors believed that there were related problems (47% considered the manager as an outsider to the health sector), whereas only 45% of the managers admitted such problems. Trainees showed a less tolerant attitude towards managerial administration in comparison to specialists. CONCLUSION Most health professionals believe that hospital administration is ineffective. The interdisciplinary model, with a manager having both health sciences and economics degrees and exercising his/her role with flexibility and taking the widest consent of health professionals may improve the very low rates of acceptance and perceived efficacy. Trainees and nurses seem to often have different views, suggesting the importance of their participation in the administrative model.