Of the many challenges facing acute-care hospitals today, none are more basic than having the personnel necessary to treat the growing patient population and maintaining an adequate level of profitability to fund these hospitals into the future.

Using proprietary data on hospital employee perceptions of empowerment from Professional Research Consultants (PRC), and secondary data on operating margin from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accessed through the American Hospital Directory, this researcher explored the potential association between these two variables. Three other independent variables were also explored: Bed Size, Teaching Status, and Medicare Inpatient Case Mix.

Based on a multiple regression analysis performed by PRC, this researcher found that there was no association between the empowerment level of the All Staff group and operating margin. There was, however, a strong association when the subset of Nursing Staff Only empowerment scores were separated from the All Staff group.