Knowledge Management for Healthcare: Investigating Practices that Drive Performance

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) is considered an important intervention in improving health care services. KM facilitates the transfer of existing knowledge and the development of new knowledge in hospitals. This research focuses on investigating the relationship between KM practices and performance in selected hospitals in Kuwait, exemplified by perceived productivity and quality. Survey data were collected from 277 doctors working in public and private hospitals in Kuwait. As predicted by previous studies, the doctors who responded to this research perceived good KM practices to have positive correlations with the productivity and quality of hospitals. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated a significant predictive power of knowledge capturing practices in predicting productivity and quality of hospitals. Knowledge sharing practices showed no significant predictive power in the model, and knowledge generating practices showed a slight prediction power.