Effects of environmental threats on the quality of care in acute care hospitals.

This study investigates how environmental threats may adversely affect internal resources (slacks) and how hospitals' slack level may mediate the adverse effect of environmental threats on quality. Two testable hypotheses are (1) The environmental threat and level of organizational slack in hospitals are inversely related; and (2) Hospitals' slack level and quality of care are positively related. Both hypotheses are supported by the data in analysis of the structural relationships among the environmental threat, organizational slack, and quality of care indicators.