Korean Journal of Policy Studies

Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2012; 27(2):67-90

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

Article

Determinants of Nursing Home Quality*

Jongho Roh¹

¹Jongho Roh is an assistant professor in the department of public administration at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. E-mail: jroh77@seoultech.ac.kr.

Â© Copyright 2012 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jan 30, 2012; Revised: Feb 06, 2012; Revised: Jun 30, 2012; Accepted: Jul 05, 2012

Published Online: Aug 31, 2012

Abstract

This study explores the determinants of nursing home quality, providing a theoretical framework that takes into account structural, process, and environmental factors. It asks: Do structural, process, and environmental factors influence nursing home quality? If so, which is the strongest predictor of quality? And does market competition have a positive impact on nursing home quality? Based on relevant literature, this study developed hypotheses and tested them with multiple regression models. The models show that most (but not all) structural, process, and environmental variables have a statistically significant relationship with nursing home quality. The ratio of nursing assistant hours to total nursing hours has the strongest positive influence on quality of care. But market competition does not have a positive effect on nursing home quality; this implies that competition may not a good way to improve the quality of nursing home care.

Keywords: market competition; nursing home quality; organizational ownership type