This comprehensive, yet accessible, text demystifies the challenging area of competence assessement in medicine and the health sciences, providing a clear framework and the tools for anyone working or studying in this area. Written by a single, highly experienced, author, the content benefits from uniformity of style and is supported and enhanced by a range of pedagogic features including cases, questions and summaries. Essential reading for all students and practitioners of medical education, it will also be an invaluable guide for allied health professionals and psychologists with a general interest in assessment, evaluation and measurement and a useful library reference.

Despite more than a decade of change, the U.S. health care delivery system is still in the early stages of its transformation into a truly effective, cost efficient and compassionate system. In Healthcare.com: RX for Reform, Dr. David Friend, trained in both medicine and business, delineates the symptoms of our ailing healthcare system and offers a vision for the future.

Even with the enormous turmoil our health care system has undergone - from the proliferation managed care to the closing of hospitals - large numbers of people continue to receive sub-optimal care. The author discusses several symptoms including:
· increasing costs
· uncertain quality of care
· eroding trust in health care vendors
· increasing prospect of shareholder liability
· declining access to providers
· unclear impact on employee productivity

It is time to discard the old, traditional way of thinking about healthcare and take a fresh look at its issues and challenges. To tackle these challenges we must strike a balance between the seemingly dissimilar disciplines of economics, medicine, technology, and politics. Dr. Friend proposes that we tear down the brick and mortar delivery model and replace it with a Virtual Health Care System.

This new model changes the roles of everyone involved in the healthcare system, from the patient to the healthcare provider. It utilizes technology to redesign health care so that it can be delivered with higher quality and greater efficiency. Healthcare.com: RX for Reform examines the actions necessary for the evolution of our current system into a Virtual Health Care System.

Features

This book discusses current health care challenges and new strategies for innovative solutions in this area from an interdisciplinary perspective of health care management, business economics, and medicine. It presents the idea of a "boundaryless hospital", a conceptual model of a patient-centric, value-based health network that overcomes typical sectorial, organizational, and geographical boundaries and offers greater efficiency and better quality outcomes for patients. Effective health care for a growing and aging population is a major challenge for economies all over the world. New breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmaceuticals as well as digitization provide scope for more efficiency and for a better quality of health care. Novel organization forms and management concepts are key for coping with the increasing cost pressure observed in most health care systems. The contributions in this volume present innovative strategies for developing and implementing the concept of a boundaryless hospital. They highlight experiences from various countries and with different treatments. The book project was initiated and carried out by the Center for Advanced Studies in Management (CASiM), the interdisciplinary research center of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management for business administration in the 21st century.

This book is vital for health service managers and clinicians, in both purchaser and provider organizations, in community and hospital settings. It helps the reader understand the principles and purposes of casemix and provides practical examples of using casemix groupings to manage services better. Its lessons are not just for acute services, but provide a way of understanding the complete spectrum of services required for a wide range of conditions, from individuals at risk to those with irreversible and progressive disease. The book explains why casemix groups are useful and the reasons for grouping and analysing patient records. It focuses on the difference between groupings of patients with conditions, and groupings of intervention episodes. Using both enables better identification of the services required to meet the needs of the population, and better communication between purchasers and providers. It has potential for managing the whole healthcare system from a population based perspective.

This is a practical book for health and IT professionals who need to ensure that patient safety is prioritized in the design and implementation of clinical information technology. Healthcare professionals are increasingly reliant on information technology to deliver care and inform their clinical decision making. Health IT provides enormous benefits in efficiency, communication and decision making. However a number of high-profile UK and US studies have concluded that when Health IT is poorly designed or sub-optimally implemented then patient safety can be compromised. Manufacturers and healthcare organizations are increasingly required to demonstrate that their Health IT solutions are proactively assured. Surprisingly the majority of systems are not subject to regulation so there is little in the way of practical guidance as to how risk management can be achieved. The book fills that gap. The author, a doctor and IT professional, harnesses his two decades of experience to characterize the hazards that health technology can introduce. Risk can never be eliminated but by drawing on lessons from other safety-critical industries the book systematically sets out how clinical risk can be strategically controlled. The book proposes the employment of a Safety Case to articulate and justify residual risk so that not only is risk proactively managed but it is seen to be managed. These simple techniques drive product quality and allow a technology's benefits to be realized without compromising patient safety.

This text is part of a practical tool-kit designed to help managers take control of their budgets. It should enable managers to understand the reports from management accounts and to know what to expect or demand from them. It has been exclusively developed to suit the specific needs of the NHS.

Offers an account of economic concepts relevant to the nursing profession. The aims of the book are to explain the economic theory underlying health care policy in the National Health Service with particular reference to nursing, and to examine the economic techniques which may be used to improve the understanding of efficiency and cost-effectivenes in the nursing profession.

Managed care organizations are paving the way to the future of health care delivery in the United States and countries around the world. As managed care systems evolve, a major concern is quality. Managed Care Quality: A Practical Guide is a collection of applications and experiences gathered from practicing health professionals in the field of managed care. This first "how to" guide was written to help managed care organizations meet the common objective of ensuring the best quality of services and care. Managed Care Quality: A Practical Guide presents successive steps in implementing quality in health care organizations. It introduces the methods, skills, and practices involved in quality health care programs and offers solutions to problems typically encountered in managed care.

How serious is medical care inflation in the United States? For many years, price indexes for medical care have outstripped the overall rate of inflation. For example, between 1986 and 1996, the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.5 percent per year, roughly exceeding the annual increase in the overall CPI during this period by 75 percent. Many economists, however, believe that economic statistics on medical care do not accurately measure medical care price changes because it is especially difficult to construct accurate price indexes for medical markets. Some very recent research, reported in this volume, suggests that --contrary to the usual presumption of runaway medical inflation --prices for at least some medical care interventions are not rising rapidly and may even be falling. Understanding medical care inflation is important for policy issues such as medical care cost containment. Medical care price indexes also affect other economic statistics on medical care, including national accounts and the national health accounts. Understanding economic trends in the medical care sector is vitally dependent on accurate medical care price measures. This volume, the result of a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, brings together state-of-the-art methodological and empirical work on the measurement of medical outcomes and prices. It will be a useful tool for anyone concerned about medical inflation, medical outcomes, the quality of medical treatments, and public policy toward medical cost containment.

Analysing Health Care Organizations seeks to link the world of health policy and management with the academic field of organization studies in a novel and additive way. It outlines the main developments in UK health care management apparent over the last thirty years and explores how they might be (re)seen with the application of some important organizational theories and perspectives. This book draws out contemporary and enduring themes from current literature on health care organization and considers them from a range of theoretical perspectives. Drawing on robust areas of research and some key academics who contribute to work in this field, it is a book relevant both to experts in the field and to those seeking to develop an understanding of health care organization from a theoretical perspective. Analysing Health Care Organizations provides a state of the art introduction foundation for subsequent works that will extend its content; providing a broad introductory overview of this theoretical terrain and setting the scene for further research.

This second edition reviews recent reforms and the likely impact of future developments in management and competition in the NHS. In particular, it reflects the growing importance of primary care and the continuing debates about health care rationing. It concentrates on the realities and how they can be interpreted to help strategists, managers, clinicians, students and those supplying the NHS understand the mechanism of efficient health care delivery.

The Juran Prescription surveys the breadth of knowledge and skills and identifies the practical steps needed if clinicians are to build quality programs that are tailored to their individual organizations. Based on the highly effective management techniques of renowned Dr. Joseph Juran, this book outlines management strategies and techniques that transform health care organizations. The author examines the principle at the heart of Juran's teachings - total quality management - as reflected in such impressive management innovations as outcomes measurement, guidelines for practice, reengineering, and patient-focused care. The Juran Prescription is a comprehensive primer written for physicians, administrators, managers, and other health care personnel who play a leadership role in today's highly complex and competitive environment.

Rationalization is concerned with making the most effective use of the resources available. In many places where this process is taking place it is plagued with public opposition and misunderstanding. Hitherto, rationalization in the acute care sector has primarily been concerned with closing sites, closing beds, moving beds between services, and moving beds from one site to another. This book discusses the need for rationalization in the context of health service reforms and future strategy. It considers recent changes in the health service, the case for rationalization, health care needs, the role of public relations, the future of the acute care hospital, site and facilities appraisal, and the costs of rationalization. The text is essential reading for managers and clinicians involved in acute care services, non-executive members of boards and trusts, and students of health services management.

This study examines management systems and their appropriateness to the National Health Service. The text considers the role of clinicians in management, recommending increased involvement by clinicians, and arguing that they must take on a greater management role in the reformed health service. The author suggests that conultants are best placed to manage the NHS efficiently and cost-effectively. In a system where non-clinical staff have come to dominate NHS management, and where purchasers determine what services are to be provided and the Patient's Charter defines the parameters of practice, doctors have genuine reasons to be hostile to the idea of involvement in hospital management. However, the author of this book warns of the danger to the health service and to patient care if consultants are sidelined. He considers management systems and the most suitable roles of clinicians in practice. In proposing models for change, he aims to transform the professional lives of clinicians.

The need for a more conscious, focused and proactive approach to the management of health-care organizations has increased substantially. One consequence of this is that health-care managers are having to look at managerial approaches and techniques that previously were the province of the private sector. Prominent among those is the whole area of marketing. This work takes a broad approach to the marketing process, highlighting some of the challenges that health-care managers and medical professionals are having to face. Having done this, the authors move on to examine some of the characteristics of good and bad management practice. It is against this background that, in subsequent chapters, they turn their attention to the question of marketing and how it might best contribute to the management of organizations throughout the health sector. Each chapter includes questions and checklists offering scope for applying marketing principles to primary and secondary health-care organizations of all types, sizes and specialities.

When hospitals began implementing their electronic medical records/electronic health records systems (EMR/HER) the pharmaceutical companies that were conducting clinical trials at those hospitals wanted to sue the date from those systems instead of having the hospitals enter the data in their EHR systems and also in the study data entry system. However, the FDA regulations would require that the hospital systems be "validated". The hospitals and the companies developing the systems argued that was "over-regulation." HIMSS published their Developer Code of Conduct where they said instead they would use Quality Management techniques. This book covers how to use Quality Management (ISO 9001) to develop computer systems, specifically EMR systems. It gives a basic introduction to how to implement computer systems. It also covers the topic of compliance because the hospitals are required to comply with regulations other than FDS regulations. The book also discusses the topics of risk management and conducting audits, both of which are part of ISO 9001 quality management of computer systems. The book is designed to give the reader an introduction to the things you have to do when implementing a computer system that has to satisfy some standards and where the accuracy of the information could impact the accuracy of a person's medical treatment.

In the face of the relentless rise in health costs, many countries have had to set priorities so that maximum benefit can be made of unlimited funds. This book shares the experience of those which have taken a lead in this field, and draws on models being developed in Oregon, New Zealand, The Netherlands and Sweden as well as the UK. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each system from which healthcare planners and managers can draw their own conclusions and apply to the situation for which they are responsible.

This book concerns itself with the key question: how to improve health in a cost effective and politically acceptable way. What makes people healthy? Why are the poor less healthy than the rich? Why do some countries have a better health record than others? An Introduction to Health is divided into four parts comprising the determinants of health, health service planning, health service financing, and controlling costs and securing user-friendly services.

Approved by the Dietary Managers Association for 9 CEUs through September 1998 Here is a useful guide that helps both administrators and food service workers understand the daily functions of their dietary departments. Dietetic Service Operation Handbook enhances extended caregivers'knowledge of basic food service and clinical dietetics operations and serves as a functional tool they can use to initiate effective organization of dietetic services. It explains proper techniques and tips for everything from how to plan a menu and care for equipment to special adaptive eating devices and modifying texture for swallowing disorders. Packed with general and specific guidelines, this book also teaches food service employees how to allocate time more wisely, making them effective members of the interdisciplinary medical team--and saving their facility time and money as well. Administrators who wish to understand the functions of their dietary department so they can communicate more effectively with its staff will find this book a most useful resource, full of meaningful interpretations of routine tasks found in the daily operation of a food service.The author, registered with the American Dietetic Association, has prioritized the topics in the book to assist the systematic organization of any dietary department. Chapters cover both administrative and clinical topics, including food purchasing and production, the policy and procedure manual, quality assurance, current trends in geriatric nutrition, the effects of medicine on diet, enteral feeding, and documentation of the medical record. Dietetic Service Operation Handbook includes a wide variety of standardized recipes for the pureed diet, a resource list, handy calculations, and many useful forms for record-keeping which are compatible with OBRA laws. Beginning dietitians and dietary managers will find this book to be an extremely helpful and practical guide in their day-to-day work. Beginning or expert administrators and nursing directors will discover it improves their understanding of and communication with their food service operations.

This comprehensive guide covers all aspects of action learning, one of the most widely used development methods in health, social and community care. The book addresses the theory and practice of action learning in these fields, and considers action learning as an adult educational ethos as well as a helpful tool. Based upon emerging experience, it identifies good practice in action learning and offers a wide range of resources to enable individuals and organisations extract maximum benefit from this approach. Offering practical tips grounded in sound educational principles, this book is invaluable reading for all senior managers and professionals considering using action learning for leadership, management and organisation development purposes, including organisation development practitioners and action learning facilitators, and for medical and healthcare educators and their counterparts in social and community care looking for a general introduction to this growing field.

Until now, no textbook on TQ has emerged that was written specifically for the healthcare industry. The Textbook of TQ in Healthcare is the first true text prepared by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals. It provides a discussion of the tools, techniques and principles of TQ. Academic programs will find this text very useful for courses in TQ, quality management, general and strategic management and leadership.The Textbook is also an excellent reference for students and professionals in medicine, nursing, allied health services, pharmacy and healthcare administration.
The Textbook of TQ in Healthcare starts with an introduction and history of TQ and its movement from the manufacturing sector to the healthcare industry. Quality is then discussed as a major cornerstone of the healthcare delivery system. Principles, methods for implementation and the tools for assessing TQ progress are described. The Textbook concludes with a section on comparative analysis of TQ with other management philosophies. Also presented are a case study of a major healthcare facility that has actually implemented TQ and an excellent collection of articles that further expand the understanding of TQ.

This book takes the readers step by step through the key skills and knowledge, to enable them to take control of their budget. It is helpful for the reader to learn how to find out the rules governing their budget, why budgets overspend and underspend and how to make a bid for increased funding.

This title is a comprehensive account of the key aspects of medical leadership. A highly accessible, text book-style resource, it explores how the medical profession has evolved in tandem with administrative and structural aspects of the NHS. Assuming leadership roles at all stages of their training and career is a progressively vital component of the definition of a good doctor. This book will provide invaluable support and guidance to anyone engaged in leadership within the NHS, but particularly to junior doctors in the primary and secondary care arenas taking on leadership roles for the first time.

This multidisciplinary text is an essential introduction to leadership in health care, combining the underpinning theory with a practical approach to help you come to decisions and solutions in everyday practice. * Written in an accessible and easy to understand style by an international team of practitioners who will engage, inspire and empower you to really make a difference in practice * Evidence based and with a focus on patient care and service delivery to ensure best practice * Includes case studies from a range of disciplines as well as questions and reflective activities to help you apply theory to practice * Provides practical tools from a number of disciplines including NLP, positive psychology, coaching and transactional analysis * Free HodderPlus website provides PowerPoints, case studies, questions, reflection activities and annotated web links This practical guide is an invaluable tool for all students and professionals in nursing and allied health, including radiographers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dieticians and paramedics.