Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Award incentives to improve quality care in internal medicine

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

Award incentives encourage higher standards of personal performance, which closely reflects the quality of patient care. We report the development, implementation, and success of our internal medicine department awards program.

Materials and methods

An anonymous pre award survey collected responses to understand the need for an awards program in our department. Five awards were celebrated. An anonymous post award survey collected responses to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

Results

A total of 69 % (175/253) of pre award survey responses were collected. Among those, 100 % (175/175) agreed that employee recognition was important. 68 % (119/175) felt that performance should be the deciding criteria for employee recognition. There was a winner in each award category. Post award survey showed 78 % (102/130) agreed that the award ceremony incentivized them to increase quality of personal performance.

Conclusion

In summary, we feel that this transparent, objective, and peer-nominated awards program could serve as an incentivized model for healthcare providers to elevate the standards of personal performance, which in turn will benefit the advancement of patient care.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Scott A, Sivey P, Ait Ouakrim D, Willenberg L, Naccarella L, Furler J et al. (2011) The effect of financial incentives on the quality of health care provided by primary care physicians. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 9:CD00845

  2. Bardach NS, Wang JJ, De Leon SF, Shih SC, Boscardin WJ, Goldman LE et al (2013) Effect of pay-for-performance incentives on quality of care in small practices with electronic health records: a randomized trial. JAMA 310(10):1051–1059

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gillam SJ, Siriwardena AN, Steel N (2012) Pay-for-performance in the United Kingdom: impact of the quality and outcomes framework: a systematic review. Ann Fam Med 10(5):461–468

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kreindler SA, Larson BK, Wu FM, Gbemudu JN, Carluzzo KL, Struthers A et al (2014) The rules of engagement: physician engagement strategies in intergroup contexts. J Health Organ Manag 28(1):41–61

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Pololi LH, Krupat E, Civian JT, Ash AS, Brennan RT (2012) Why are a quarter of faculty considering leaving academic medicine? A study of their perceptions of institutional culture and intentions to leave at 26 representative US medical schools. Acad Med 87(7):859–869

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Schloss EP, Flanagan DM, Culler CL, Wright AL (2009) Some hidden costs of faculty turnover in clinical departments in one academic medical center. Acad Med 84(1):32–36

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Herzberg F (1996) Work and the nature of man. World Publishing, Cleveland

    Google Scholar 

  8. Mohiuddin Z, Sanchez LR, Alcantra JM, Shuaib W (2014) Implementing incentivized practice to improve patient care in developing countries. Qual Manag Health Care 23(2):94–98

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Cropsey KL, Masho SW, Shiang R, Sikka V, Kornstein SG, Hampton CL et al (2008) Why do faculty leave? Reasons for attrition of women and minority faculty from a medical school: four-year results. J Womens Health (Larchmt) 17(7):1111–1118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Linn LS, Yager J, Cope D, Leake B (1985) Health status, job satisfaction, job stress, and life satisfaction among academic and clinical faculty. JAMA 254(19):2775–2782

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Martinson BC, Anderson MS, de Vries R (2005) Scientists behaving badly. Nature 435(7043):737–738

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Mawardi BH (1979) Satisfactions, dissatisfactions, and causes of stress in medical practice. JAMA 241(14):1483–1486

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Shanafelt TD, Sloan JA, Habermann TM (2003) The well-being of physicians. Am J Med 114(6):513–519

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ruedrich SL, Cavey C, Katz K, Grush L (1992) Recognition of teaching excellence through the use of teaching awards. Acad Psychol 16:10–13

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Chang CW, Mills JC (2013) Effects of a reward system on resident research productivity. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 139(12):1285–1290

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

There are no financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Hospital General de la Plaza de la Salud, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    W. Shuaib & L. Rosemary Sanchez

  2. Department of Medicine, Hospital Salvador Bienvenido Gautier, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    W. Shuaib & L. Rosemary Sanchez

  3. Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, USA

    W. Shuaib

  4. Department of Medicine, Weiss Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA

    A. M. Saeed & N. Hashmi

  5. Department of Medicine, Reading Health System, West Reading, PA, USA

    H. Shahid & R. Alweis

  6. Department of Medicine, Queens Hospital Center, Jamaica, NY, USA

    M. Ahmad

Authors
  1. W. Shuaib
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. M. Saeed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H. Shahid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. N. Hashmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. R. Alweis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. M. Ahmad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. L. Rosemary Sanchez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to W. Shuaib.

Additional information

Laura Rosemary Sanchez is Internal Medicine director emeritus.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shuaib, W., Saeed, A.M., Shahid, H. et al. Award incentives to improve quality care in internal medicine. Ir J Med Sci 184, 483–486 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-014-1150-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-014-1150-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation