Efforts to instill better management in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals have been a prominent feature of recent public-sector reform efforts in the United Kingdom. So it’s encouraging that new research conducted jointly by McKinsey and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) points to a link between key management practices, on the one hand, and better health care and higher hospital productivity, on the other. The study, based on an assessment of 126 NHS and other hospitals across the United Kingdom,¹ strongly suggests that improved operational effectiveness, performance management, and talent management are associated with lower rates of infection in hospitals, lower readmission rates, more satisfied patients and more productive staffs, and better financial margins. Moreover, the study indicates that stronger leadership by doctors in the way hospitals are managed could play a particularly significant role in improving them. In the light of continued pressure on the public sector everywhere, these findings should interest policy makers and health care leaders striving to improve medical systems elsewhere in the world.

Over the last five years, joint McKinsey–LSE research has explored the drivers of productivity in industrial settings.² Our recent effort extending the inquiry into the field...