Management Practices and Labor Productivity in Intensive Care Homes for the Elderly

         
Author Name INUI Tomohiko (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) / KAWASAKI Kazuyasu (Chuo University) / ITO Yukiko (Tsudajuku University) / MIYAGAWA Tsutomu (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) / MANO Toshiki (Chuo University)
Creation Date/NO. August 2019 19-J-049
Research Project Research on Productivity-improving Capital Investment
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Abstract

With the aging of Japanese society, the demand for care services for the elderly is rapidly increasing. It is already difficult to provide enough care services, and we anticipate an enormous increase in costs for care services in the future. To cope with these situations, it is of paramount importance to improve the efficiency of the long-term care service industry.

Previous studies found that the better-managed establishments recruit and retain workers with higher capabilities and achieve higher productivity. The establishments with better management practices have been found to provide higher quality service in the case of non-profit organizations, such as hospitals and schools.

Our study examines the relationship between labor productivity and management practices in Japanese intensive care homes for the elderly. We find a positive relationship between the management practices and each of the following: labor productivity, ICT and robot adoption, and manager's hours spent improving services. On the other hand, there was no correlation between the management practices and the retention rate of workers or the shares of aged workers.