It 's a core issue at the heart of elder care: while best-practice data exist for long-term care, quality of life as a concept, measure and standard for care outcomes remains elusive. The result of an ambitious European research initiative, the Care Keys Project addresses quality of life issues among frail, care-dependent seniors, taking their social as well as health needs into account. This resulting volume explains the theory behind Care Keys, its methodology, empirical findings, and practical considerations in promoting effective, efficient elder care aimed at social and emotional well-being and including disabled and cognitively impaired patients.

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.

The third book in the Healthcare Payment Systems series, Prospective Payment Systems examines the various types of prospective payment systems (PPS) used by healthcare providers and third-party payers. Emphasizing the basic elements of PPS, it considers the many variations of payment for hospital inpatient and outpatient services, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, long-term hospital care, and rehabilitation facilities along with other providers. The book describes the anatomy of PPS, including cost reports, adjudication features and processes, relative weights, and payment processes. It outlines the features and documentation requirements for Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groups (MS-DRGs), the Medicare Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs), Medicare HHPPS, Medicare Skilled Nursing Resource Utilization Groups (RUGs), and private third-party payers. Provides a framework for understanding and analyzing the characteristics of any PPS Discusses Medicare prospective payment systems and approaches Includes specific references to helpful resources, both online and in print Facilitates a clear understanding of the complexities related to PPS-covering specific topics at a high level and revisiting similar topics to reinforce understanding Complete with a detailed listing of the acronyms most- commonly used in healthcare coding, billing, and reimbursement, the book includes a series of case studies that illustrate key concepts. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges with PPS-including compliance and overpayment issues-to provide you with the real-world understanding needed to make sense of any PPS.

The facts are hard to ignore: rising rates of chronic disease, epidemic obesity and diabetes, a widening longevity gap between rich and poor, health care "reforms" at odds with patient interests. In response, Policy Innovations for Health argues that a nation's well-being mirrors the health of its citizens-and calls not only for improvement in our health care systems but for a complete reconceptualization of health and social policy, starting with expanded, interrelated roles for health care providers, consumers, and policymakers. The long-term strategies outlined in this book emphasize a stronger balance between public and individual health goals, and collaborations between cost-efficient, streamlined medical care and innovative therapeutic research and technology-values that have been traditionally been considered in conflict. Examples are included of new care models and groundbreaking programs from Canada, the EU, and Australia that bring together the community, consumer, governmental, and corporate sectors; bridge the gaps between prevention, health promotion, and practice; and improve core health determinants such as living conditions, education, and social supports. These social, political, medical, and technological advances, assert the authors, are crucial to meeting the challenges of the decades ahead. Among the topics covered: Health as a central economic and societal force. New directions in the monitoring of health and well-being. "Integrating Health in all Policies" programs and how they can be implemented. The democratization of health knowledge and the expanding role of patient participation. Closing the financial divide in public health priority-setting. Policy Innovations for Health adds important new voices to the health care debate, and its vision will inspire professionals in health policy, health administration, health economics, and global health, as well as graduate students planning to enter these rapidly changing fields.

Proven to increase efficiencies in the manufacturing sector, Standard Work has become a key element in reducing process waste, ensuring patient safety, and improving healthcare services. Part of the Lean Tools for Healthcare Series, this reader-friendly book builds on the success of the bestselling, Standard Work for the Shopfloor.

Standard Work for Lean Healthcare explains how to apply this powerful Lean tool to increase patient safety and reduce the cost of providing healthcare services. It illustrates how standardization can help you establish best practices for performing daily work and why it should be the cornerstone for all of your continuous improvement efforts. Presented in an easy-to-assimilate format, the book describes work in terms of cycle time, work in process, takt time, and layout. It also:

• Defines the key concepts of standard work and explores the essential elements of a continuous improvement culture
• Provides detailed guidance through the process of creating, maintaining, and improving standards
• Illustrates the application of standardization and standard work in healthcare with a range of examples
• Includes access to helpful websites and further reading on standardization, standard work, the 5S System, and Lean healthcare

A joint effort between the Rona Consulting Group and Productivity Press, this book presents invaluable insights from pioneers in Lean thinking to help you avoid common mistakes that can lead to unnecessary wastes of time and resources. Each richly illustrated chapter includes a chapter summary, reflection questions, and margin assists that highlight key terms, how-to steps, and healthcare examples making this an essential resource for healthcare professionals starting out on their Lean journey. "

Healthcare is noted for using leading-edge technologies and embracing new scientific discoveries to enable better cures for diseases and better means to enable early detection of most life-threatening diseases. However, the healthcare industry globally, and in the US specifically, has been extremely slow to adopt technologies that focus on better practice management and administrative needs. Presently, healthcare is grappling with many challenges both nationally and globally, including escalating costs, a move to a preventative care environment, and a technologically savvy patient with high expectations. The Handbook of Research on Optimizing Healthcare Management Techniques is a pivotal reference source that provides an extensive and rich compilation of various ICT initiatives and examines the role that ICT plays and will play in the future of healthcare delivery. It represents ways in which healthcare delivery can be made superior and the healthcare industry can begin to address the major challenges it faces in the 21st century so that ultimately the most important person in the web of healthcare players, the patient, can be confident about receiving high-quality, cost-effective healthcare. While highlighting topics such as e-health, medical informatics, and patient value, this publication explores the role of supportive technologies as well as the methods of focused, patient-centric outcomes. This book is ideally designed for doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, medical staff, hospital directors, medical boards, IT consultants, health practitioners, academicians, researchers, and students.

Depression and Globalisation is an important academic text on the political aspects of depression, specifically the relationship between globalisation and depression. In this text Dr. Walker reestablishes the link between mental health research and treatment, along with the political and economical influences outside the world of academic and clinical mental health. Overall, this book will accomplish the task of how closely and inextricably linked these diverse fields are and the way they operate together to produce not only a cultural representation of mental illness but influence the extent and type of mental distress in the 21st century.

Prepare for an uncertain future with a solid vision and innovative practices. Is your healthcare organization spending too much time on strategy--with too little to show for it? If you read nothing else on strategy, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones for healthcare professionals to help you catalyze your organization's strategy development and execution. Leading strategy experts, such as Michael E. Porter, Jim Collins, W. Chan Kim, and Renee Mauborgne, provide the insights and advice you need to: Understand how the rules of corporate competition translate to the healthcare sector Craft a vision for an uncertain future Segment your market to better serve diverse patient populations Achieve the best health outcomes--at the lowest cost Learn what disruptive innovation means for healthcare Use the Balanced Scorecard to measure your progress This collection of articles includes "What Is Strategy?" by Michael E. Porter; "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy," by Michael E. Porter; "Health Care Needs Real Competition," by Leemore S. Dafny and Thomas H. Lee; "Building Your Company's Vision," by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras; "Reinventing Your Business Model," by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann; "Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?" by Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Bohmer, and John Kenagy; "Blue Ocean Strategy," by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne; "Rediscovering Market Segmentation," by Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer; "The Office of Strategy Management," by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton; and "The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care," by Michael E. Porter and Thomas H. Lee.

The first edition of Infection Prevention reviewed evolving areas in infection prevention on topics including contact precautions, technology implementation, specific infections, and care in various settings. It summarized the current data on infection prevention, presents controversies on the various topics, and includes recommendations for patient safety. Addressing hot topics such as MRSA, C. difficile vaccination, mandatory flu vaccines, and CLABSI, this is the only text to include prevention and control overviews across a range of infection issues. Written by experts in the field, this successor edition will update current chapters on the most cutting-edge models of care on emerging and evolving topics in infectious diseases. It will also include new material and chapters on high-level disinfection, diagnostic test stewardship, unique pathogens units, outpatient antibiotic stewardship, outpatient antibiotic therapy, as well as a chapter on infection prevention metrics: how much can we prevent healthcare associated infections and how hard should we try. The second edition of Infection Prevention: New Perspectives and Controversies is a valuable resource for infection prevention professionals, healthcare quality and safety professionals, caring for patients in in- and outpatient settings.

Increasing demands on acute hospital resources, together with a reduction in the number of available beds, has placed a greater emphasis on the need for rapid and effective assessment of patients in order to determine their need for hospital adsmission. This has led to the widespread emergence of the specialist Medical Assessment Unit (MAU). This timely book provides an up- to-date guide to the assessment and immediate management of patients with acute medical conditions. It presents a structured approach based on common presenting features and focuses on the first twenty four hours of the patient's stay in hospital. In writing this book, the editors have been able to draw on their own clinical experiences as a charge nurse in Accident and Emergency nursing and a sister in acute cardiology and respectively.

Community development, planning and partnerships have become important terms in health promotion but, up until now, debate around these concepts have been discussed more in planning science than in public health literature. Roar Amdam draws on theories and new empirical evidence from local, regional and international planning and public health in order to develop a new model for health promotion: empowerment planning. Much health promotion planning has focused on top-down approaches, and while efforts to be participative are made, it is often without having a clear understanding of how community empowerment can be accommodated within health promotion programs. Amdam's innovative concept combines top-down and bottom-up approaches to enable people to take more responsibility for their own health and for individual and collective capacity building. Planning in Health Promotion Work is suitable for all students and researchers of health promotion and health planning and development, whilst the numerous applied examples make it an invaluable resource for policymakers and practitioners working in public health.

The book provides comprehensive, practical guidelines on the responsibilities of those who lead, co-ordinate and manage volunteers in small hospices, large specialist palliative care units, and in general hospitals with palliative care teams. Volunteers are key workers, who often perform difficult and important work. In the United Kingdom alone there are thousands of volunteers in hospice work, a small proportion doing work with patients, and the vast majority doing equally valuable work such as driving, sitting with relatives, manning charity shops and telephones. As a result, Europe, Australia, the United States and Canada are very interested in the United Kingdom's use of volunteers. Aimed primarily at Voluntary Services Managers in small hospices, large specialist palliative care units, and in general hospitals with palliative care teams, this updated second edition covers volunteer selection, training, supervision and support, and legal and ethical considerations. Information is presented in an easily accessible way, using key points, summary panels and checklists. This book will also appeal to the volunteers themselves.

Across the country ambulances are turned away from emergency departments (EDs) and patients are waiting hours and sometimes days to be admitted to a hospital room. Hospitals are finding it hard to get specialist physicians to come to treat emergency patients. Our EDs demand a new way of thinking. They are not at a tipping point; they are at a breaking point. Under current loads and trends they are going to begin to break and these breakdowns will be painful and ultimately dangerous to society. Recognizing that the ideal in health care is presently beyond our immediate grasp, this book instead focuses on providing health care leaders with the tools they can employ to optimize the performance of EDs and thereby improve service to patients, employees, and communities. Written by 20 of the most progressive and successful health care reformers in the country, the approaches described can be utilized to quantify improvements, enhance predictability of workflow, and improve staff scheduling. The data derived using these techniques can serve as powerful evidence in support of change. While a common discussion among ED professionals is the perception that many patients are not really emergency patients and could be treated in another setting at another time, that argument is not germane until we as a nation elect to reform the way we chose to deliver healthcare to the underserviced. In the meantime this book provides invalauable information to help individual hospitals to retool their ED's. It offers new approaches that think outside of the box for all stakeholders. It also provides the statistical evidence that administrators need to make their cases for changes and added resources. It will help you forecast the demand for services and give your center an approach that will allow the ED to become a source of income rather than one that continues to hemorrhage needed limited health care funding.

Die Kosten im deutschen Gesundheitssystem steigen, zugleich werden Qualitatsprobleme immer offensichtlicher trotz aller Reformbemuhungen. Die Autoren gehen davon aus, dass nicht Kostenkontrolle, sondern die Steigerung des Patientennutzens das Ziel ist, das alle Akteure vereinen kann. In zwolf Empfehlungen erklaren sie, wie sich Leistungserbringer im Wettbewerb um Qualitat organisieren sollten, wie Krankenkassen eine aktivere Rolle spielen und das Vergutungssystem kunftig Exzellenz in der Versorgung einzelner Krankheitsbilder belohnen konnte."

Beyond Return on Investment: Expanding the Value of Healthcare Information Technology, 2nd Edition this updated and revised edition provides lessons learned from healthcare IT adoption and the opportunity to drive value realization. From providing a basic primer on 'how-to' complete a Return on Investment analysis for a single project to developing a comprehensive program of value management to support the transition to high value healthcare, this book addresses emerging trends, practical approaches and measurement methods to help drive value. Beyond Return on Investment, 2nd Edition views IT as a strategic asset in the transformation of healthcare. Based on previous editions, this book updates and identifies the components of an integrated value management strategy including value driven decision-making culture, an integrated approach to strategy development, a value based governance model, a process that defines business case development through ROI analysis, value measurement and value scorecard development. New chapters in this addition include a Framework for Value Management, validating vendor defined value and ROI, and new methods for realizing value.

The field of medical education and training has undergone dramatic changes within the past few years, and continues to evolve. Modernising Medical Careers, changes in the statutory role of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board, and the Good Doctors, Safer Patients report from Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, are just some of the factors affecting the way doctors are now learning. In this book, Yvonne Carter and Neil Jackson, experienced medical educators of both undergraduates and postgraduates who have demonstrated a long standing commitment to multi-professional education and training, bring together a prestigious team of contributors with a wide variety of experience across diverse academic, service and lay backgrounds, to provide a comprehensive, up to date review of medical education and training.
With the demands on young doctors increasing, along with higher patient expectations, the need for ongoing education and training within the medical profession has never been higher. This book offers theoretical and practical guidance for those planning, delivering, and receiving education and training in ever-changing healthcare environments. Themes covered include assessment, professionalism and medical regulation, educational standards, patients' expectations, Continuing Professional Development, leadership and management, the European Working Time Directive, Fitness to Practice, interprofessional learning, the development of the NHS workforce, equality and diversity, and ethical and legal issues. Medical education needs to be a lifelong process, and this book integrates both undergraduate and postgraduate issues throughout, to encourage continued learning.
This book will help ensure that future generations of doctors are trained to meet the changing needs of our population.

At last! The book for anyone who writes regulatory documents or wishes to learn more about writing regulatory documents for the biopharmaceutical industry. Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques: Clinical Documentation for Drugs and Biologics, written by 2 well-known regulatory writers with a combined 40 years experience, provides detailed information on a ~targeteda (TM) writing. Many books, papers, and Web sites provide information on what needs to be written and submitted to regulatory authorities, but this comprehensive book shows you how to approach the writing task in a logical process that permits rapid completion of writing.

Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques is the first comprehensive book of regulatory writing for the biopharmaceutical industry, and covers specific documents types, as well as submission to all major regions of the world. The book provides a a ~targeteda (TM) method of document development -- a way of planning for information flow that maximizes efficiency and speed to submission. The book has a hands-on approach to identifying methods that quickly determine which document is required, how to write it, and how it fits into submission types. The authors share their experiences with numerous a ~Lessons Learneda (TM) side bars of information.

Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques takes the reader from regulatory writing fundamentals, templates, and style guides through source documents (protocols and clinical study reports) to integrated documents (investigatora (TM)s brochures, IMPD. ISS, ISE, and informed consents) to global submissions in Europe, Japan, and the United States. The comprehensive appendices provide examples of checklists, actualdocuments, and the submission forms required for Japan. An extensive glossary of terms is included.

In summary, Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques: Clinical Documentation for Drugs and Biologics offers a quick start up for the discipline, including regulatory context within which writing is performed.

In no industry is the concept of quality more essential than it is in healthcare, which is why the lean quality principles learned through the example of the Toyota Production System are so applicable. Two fundamental principles of Toyota's push for excellence are especially relevant to healthcare: ensuring quality at every step and keeping improvement processes simple enough that they are viable, reproducible, and teachable. Developed with the input of more than 60 healthcare organizations, Value Stream Mapping for Healthcare Made Easy introduces healthcare managers to the essential method developed by Toyota known as the Value Stream Map (VSM). The first half of the book provides an introduction to VSMs that shows healthcare workers at all levels how to look at any process with eyes that probe all the value-added and non-value-added activities in the delivery of a requested service or product. This will allow all stakeholders the opportunity to evaluate, create, and communicate innovation in their workplace. The second half reviews real value stream maps at real healthcare facilities created by teams of administrators, managers, physicians, and staff members. Most participants were not experienced with lean thinking and for many this was their first engagement with lean methods. What becomes clear through these examples is the importance of initiating realistic improvements that can quickly demonstrate successful change and encourage even more problem solving. This ability to be involved with creating a better way to work has been exceptionally well received by workers both at Toyota and now throughout the healthcare industry. Lean thinking involves employees in improving work that is meaningful to them, at a level where they can see and appreciate the changes they have participated in creating. This satisfaction is essential to retaining good workers, as well as to the everyday improvement of safety, patient satisfaction, and affordability. VSM is a proven high-level view tool that can be used in every aspect of healthcare to identify, understand, and improve processes. Information included illustrates the simplicity and completeness of the tool and describes its applications to staff communication, regulatory documentation, and activities of daily work. The book also highlights simple-to-use data collection and interpretation as part of the VSM process.

Of previous editions: '... breaks new ground in its readability ... It is concise, wise, and firmly pragmatic'. British Medical Journal 'Since it was first published in 1994, Peter Tate's The Doctor's Communication Handbook has been essential reading to improve GP registrars' communication skills'. Practical Diabetes International This bestselling title has established itself as the ultimate guide to patient communication for all doctors, whatever their experience and wherever they practice. Highly respected by many and acclaimed for its light, conversational tone, this completely updated and expanded eighth edition remains a key text for doctors at all levels and in all settings, particularly candidates sitting for the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Key features: Unique and accessible approach to this vital and frequently poorly practiced aspect of medicine Addresses the change in practice where traditional doctor consultations are increasingly being done by other health professionals, including nurse practitioners and paramedics Reflects the dissolution of the primary/secondary care boundary, and the increasing importance of shared responsibility for patient communication in clinical and social care Covers the new types of consultation including telephone triage and virtual consultation and the associated risks and benefits Retains all the features praised in previous editions brevity, readability and humour As patients become participants, doctors are increasingly adjusting to new roles and forms of communication from orators and governors to confidants and interpreters. The Doctor's Communication Handbook continues to provide an invaluable 'one stop shop' to help students, practicing doctors, nurses and other healthcare practitioners value and improve their skills in this area.

Die Abhandlung zeigt Moeglichkeiten und Wege auf, wie die qualitativ hochwertige Gesundheitsversorgung in Deutschland auch in Zeiten des demographischen Wandels und eines zunehmenden AErztemangels gesichert werden kann. Diskutiert wird die Erbringung bislang AErzten vorbehaltener Leistungen durch nicht-arztliches Personal im Wege der Delegation oder Substitution. Die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen, Moeglichkeiten und Grenzen werden aufgezeigt und Vorschlage fur die kunftige Aufgabenverteilung im Gesundheitswesen unterbreitet.

Der etablierte Workshop "Bildverarbeitung fur die Medizin" und seine erfolgreichen Veranstaltungen: Ziel ist auch 2007 wieder die Darstellung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und die Vertiefung der Gesprache zwischen Wissenschaftlern, Industrie und Anwendern. Die Beitrage - einige in engl. Sprache - behandeln alle Bereiche der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, u.a. Bildgebung, CAD, Segmentierung, Bildanalyse, Therapieplanung und klinische Anwendung.

There is little debate that health care in the United States is in need of reform. But where should those improvements begin? With insurers? Drug makers? The doctors themselves? In Big Med, David Dranove and Lawton Robert Burns argue that we're overlooking the most ubiquitous cause of our costly and underperforming system: megaproviders, the expansive health care organizations that have become the face of American medicine. Your local hospital is likely part of one. Your doctors, too. And the megaproviders are bad news for your health and your wallet. Drawing on decades of combined expertise in health care consolidation, Dranove and Burns trace Big Med's emergence in the 1990s, followed by its swift rise amid false promises of scale economies and organizational collaboration. In the decades since, megaproviders have gobbled up market share and turned independent physicians into salaried employees of big bureaucracies, while delivering on none of their early promises. For patients this means higher costs and lesser care. Meanwhile, physicians report increasingly low morale, making it all but impossible for most systems to implement meaningful reforms. In Big Med, Dranove and Burns combine their respective skills in economics and management to provide a nuanced explanation of how the provision of health care has been corrupted and submerged under consolidation. They offer practical recommendations for improving competition policies that would reform megaproviders to actually achieve the efficiencies and quality improvements they have long promised. This is an essential read for understanding the current state of the health care system in America-and the steps urgently needed to create an environment of better care for all of us.

Gesundheitswesen im Umbruch: Steigende Anspr che der Patienten stehen restriktiver Ausgabebereitschaft der ffentlichen medizinischen Versorgung gegen ber. Kurzfristige budgetorientierte "Gesundheitspolitik" macht vern nftige Reformen beinahe unm glich. Der Mut zu notwendigen Ver nderungen fehlt. Die "Zweiklassenmedizin" hat sich bereits etabliert. Der niedergelassene Arzt von morgen braucht Strategien, um sich in diesem Umfeld zu behaupten.

In den letzten Jahren hat sich der Workshop "Bildverarbeitung fur die Medizin" durch erfolgreiche Veranstaltungen etabliert. Ziel ist auch 2006 wieder die Darstellung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und die Vertiefung der Gesprache zwischen Wissenschaftlern, Industrie und Anwendern. Die Beitrage dieses Bandes - einige in englischer Sprache - behandeln alle Bereiche der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, insbesondere Algorithmen, Soft- und Hardwaresysteme sowie deren klinische Anwendungen. "