Stressed But Satisfied: Organizational Change in Ambulatory Care

Abstract

Rapid expansion of ambulatory care to meet consumer demands and reduce health costs requires administrative changes. This article describes the reorganization of ambulatory care personnel into multi-disciplinary teams of self-directed specialists and generalists who make decisions close to the patient care level. The authors propose the use of job-related questionnaires to assess the level and nature of such stress during the change process. Administrators can use the resulting data to plan stress reduction strategies.