IHP_340_Final_Project.docx Article Analysis Southern New Hampshire University IHO

IHP_340_Final_Project.docx    Article Analysis      Southern New Hampshire University  IHO-340    Article Analysis  The research article, The Effects of Hospital-Level Factors on Patients™ Ratings of Physician Communication, written by Mona Al-Amin and Suzanne C. Makarem, is a research study that examineswhat organizational-level factors influence patient perceptions of physician communication in inpatient settings.(Al-Amin, M., Makarem, S. C., &Canose, J., 2016) The study poses the question: Which hospital/organizational-level factors influence communication between patients and physicians? The researchers hypothesize that a higherphysician staffing level, a key structural attribute, is associated with higher ratingsof physician-patient communication.  The study did not have a controlled variable, making it an observational study.In the executive summary of the article, they state that they œran a regression analysis to determine the predictors of poor physician communication, measured as the percentage of patients in a hospital who reportedthat physicians sometimes or never communicated well.  There were several analyses ran as well as observations on HCAHPS surveys.HCAHPS surveys are composed of questions about physician communication and rated (1) always,(2) usually, and (3) sometimes or never, and then reported as a percentage of each response.The researchers then merged the AHA annual survey database with the findings of the HCAHPS surveys. They gathered information like hospital size, FTEphysi