Business Research Applications Paper

Essay by KCBSPBUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, February 2010

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

IntroductionThe health care industry in today's society is rapidly growing with the advancement of products and services navigating the way. Along with the numerous technological advances, the number of available treatment facilities for individuals to choose between is vast. More often the reputation, doctors on staff, and services available remain as the prominent deciding factors for individuals in choosing a health care institution. Because of recent changes in the area of reimbursement in regard to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, recompense is at present based on customer satisfaction scores rather than simply services rendered. A facility's ability to focus on customer satisfaction will ultimately determine its future in the industry and success among its competitors. I currently work for the Sisters of Saint Francis Health Services whom own a wide array of health care facilities over the span of Indiana and Illinois respectively. The facility in which I work, Saint Anthony Medical Center, is one of the hospitals under this conglomerate and is the leader in customer satisfaction among the rest of the corporate facilities.

The main goal of the corporation is to provide positive experiences and guarantee satisfaction and the facility's reporting systems and research methods serve as the instruments to measure success in those two areas.

Research Methods"Business research...is a systematic inquiry that provides information to guide managerial decisions" (Cooper & Schindler, 2006, p. 4). Research within an organization is used in adherence to the process of exploring options for improvement and putting those opportunities to good cause. Saint Anthony Medical Center has various reporting and researching tools simultaneously tracking the actions versus reactions within the facility and among its competitors. Four of the most used researching methods used are customer surveys, Six Sigma initiatives, five facility goals, and trend analysis.

In 2003, in response to an...