Effects of hospital leadership, organizational systems, and ESWOS on medical error reduction

One of the major elements of care quality provided by health care organizations is the reduction of medical errors. This study empirically examines the effect of leadership, organizational systems, and employee satisfaction with organizational support on medical error reduction. A set of hypotheses is tested based on data collected from 208 medical staff of hospitals with more than 300 beds in South Korea. Data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis using SPSS 17.0 and Mplus 5.1. One of the major findings of this study was that medical error reduction could be achieved by effective leadership. Leadership and operational efficiency drive reduction in medical errors in the health care industry. The comparison between large- and small-sized quality assurance teams’ roles indicated that there was a significant difference in their effect on medical error reduction. The results of the study shed light on some practical implications for management professionals in hospitals.