It is unclear whether patient care quality (PCQ), which comprises four facets—interpersonal, technical, environmental, and administrative quality—differs across hospitals in the three contiguous countries of North America—the US, Canada and Mexico. To offer a more nuanced understanding of the comprehensive nature of PCQ and the roles of their antecedents, we disaggregated the four PCQ facets. Using a mix of primary and secondary data drawn from hospital quality experts in the three nations wee empirically tested a model whereby two country-level factors—national culture and a country’s level of infrastructure development—moderate the roles of hospital quality leadership and technology integration on each of the four PCQ facets. The results support a negative moderation by infrastructure on the positive role of a hospital’s quality leadership on environmental quality. This study contributes to healthcare operations literature by highlighting the important role of a country’ institutional attributes on PCQ delivery, as well as the role of quality leadership in this process. We contribute to medical practice in hospitals as well. Given the increase in globalization, travel and migration among healthcare workers and the general population across North America, our results imply that physician and nursing staff should be sensitized to cultural and institutional differences in healthcare stakeholder definitions of quality care. It would improve hospitals’ ability to provide care for all patients thereby globalizing healthcare.
