Improving Hospital Financial Performance: Application of Social Responsibility Future Research

Today, managers in the field of health and care, especially in hospitals, need to address not only the internal issues but also the social and environmental issues of their decisions and actions to improve financial performance and increase productivity. The purpose of this study was to improve the financial performance of hospitals through social responsibility future study.

The method of this research was applied in terms of purpose, and according to the research methodology, it was a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodology consisting of phenomenology, content analysis, and future study. In the first step, phenomenological methods and interviews with experts were used to extract hospital financial performance indicators. In the second step, the content analysis method and systematic review on selected articles, dimensions, and indicators of social responsibility were extracted. Finally, as for the future study, the variables related to social responsibility were extracted through fuzzy delphi technique and analyzed using structural-interpretive model.

In the first step, 16 financial performance indicators were extracted. In the second step, the results of this phase showed the extraction of 35 proponents and four dimensions of economic, social, employee, and environmental social responsibility. In the last step, 20 variables related to social responsibility were extracted using the structural-interpretive model. The power of penetration and the degree of the dependence of the variables were determined.

The research results showed that all the variables associated with social responsibility had a great deal of influence and instability powers. That is, any change that occurs on them affects both them as well as other variables. Since the main purpose of public hospitals is to provide quality services to all segments of society and satisfy them, Therefore, considering all dimensions and components of social responsibility increases productivity and consequently improves the financial performance of hospitals.