Management practices and the quality of primary care

ABSTRACT

Using the World Management Survey method, the authors mapped and analysed management quality in Swedish primary care centres. On average, private sector providers were better managed than public providers. Centres with a high overall social deprivation among enrolled patients also tended to have higher management quality. Management quality was positively associated with accessibility (length of waiting times), but not with patient-reported experience.

IMPACT

The authors explored the use of management practices at the operational (care centre) level in Swedish primary care. The paper relates management quality to provider characteristics (public or private) and to the quality of care. An expansion of private care centres seems to have increased the average level of management quality in Swedish primary care. The findings suggest that suitable applications of management practices, especially in the area of people management, can produce a higher quality of care.

KEYWORDS:

• Accessibility
• management quality
• primary care
• quality of care
• World Management Survey

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Ilinca Benson and Mats Brommels for helpful comments and suggestions, and Hanna Thunström for excellent research assistance. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse and the IFN project ‘Public Services in the Future’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).