The Implementation of the Research Business Administrator at a Large Healthcare Organization: A Programmatic Evaluation of the Department of Research and Evaluation Units
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Date
2019-12
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Abstract
In 2017, two divisions within the Department of Research and Evaluation, at a large Healthcare Organization, underwent a decentralization which resulted in the creation and implementation of a new role, the Research Business Administrator (RBA). The RBA implementation aimed to increase focus on customer service and add more direct support to the PIs within the Organization. For this capstone project, the author examined whether the implementation of the research business administrator was efficacious. The author disseminated a survey to those who were affected by the decentralization and examined the results to determine if the implementation was successful. There were 48 responses to the survey; the survey was sent to 79 potential participants.
Responses to the survey confirmed that the implementation was successful among those who contributed responses. Nevertheless, there were significant disparities in reactions caused by RBA implementation. Such that, many believe that there was a lack of communication to the staff about the implementation, failure to clearly delineate roles and responsibilities among staff, lack of defining workflows incorporating the RBA, and overall too many overlapping initiatives being conducted concurrently. Using current literature review, the author made four recommendations that were brought about from the survey findings. These included understanding research administration infrastructures and outlining management’s role under change management. The recommendations in this project serve to provide an opportunity for continuous improvement and development of the research units within the Department of Research and Evaluation at the Organization.
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research administration, reorganization, program evaluation