Providing human service through markets is inherently problematic. Quality care is critical and unsatisfactory human service greatly influences people's quality of life. Yet, profit for human service providers is essential for sustainable service provision. This book focuses on striking a balance between human services' need for quality assurance and market providers' need for profit.

This title was first published in 2000: Serving the State is an invaluable two-volume exploration of global trends in public administration education and training. Volume 2 of this important reference work explores traditions and contexts. Included for examination are the French and Islamic traditions, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, Latin America, Small Island States and former communist countries such as Poland and the Ukraine as well as other countries undergoing rapid economic change.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of current reforms in public sector quality management in Eastern Europe. Comparisons are made with trends in Western European countries to draw out the lessons emerging from current developments (including e-governance). Case studies from twelve countries and five comparative and conceptual studies identify how quality is put into practice, how the level of quality is assessed through quality accreditation systems and how e-government and citizen involvement may help to improve public service quality. The findings make essential reading for academics and students in public policy and public administration who are interested in modernization of the public sector from an international perspective. It also provides helpful guidance for reformers who want to try new approaches to improving the quality of public services.

Due to factors such as congestion and pollution there is increased public and academic interest in road user charging. Until now the debate has focused on the economic theory of road user charging. However, a cogent economic case does not necessarily ensure public acceptance and subsequent implementation. This book seeks to provide an academic account of how such schemes might be implemented. It deals with how the decision-making process should be undertaken in order to secure political and public acceptability. This book bridges the gap between economic theory and public policy making and suggests policy options as a means of combating road traffic congestion in urban areas. The book includes a chapter on the Central London congestion charging scheme detailing the various factors which have resulted in its successful implementation. This is essential reading for academics, advanced students of transport, economics, public policy and the environment, and policy makers at the international, national and local levels.

Leading Medicaid Managed Care Plans examines leadership actions necessary to successfully operate a Medicaid managed care plan with emphasis on the relationship with the state Medicaid agency the health plan is contracted with. With appropriate operational and governance oversight, and with solid mutually respectful relationships with the state agency, Medicaid health plans are more likely to sustain success and prosperity for the long term. The approach of Leading Medicaid Managed Care Plans builds on key infrastructure elements that need to be in place when contracting with a state agency, and for overall success of the organization. It takes a pragmatic and methodical approach, interspersed with real-life examples of what to do for success and what actions to avoid that frequently lead to failure. This approach is different from most managed care books (Medicaid or otherwise) as those mostly focus on the process of the business (such as details around claims payment, or provider contracting) and ignore the role of the state Medicaid agency and its importance in retaining the contractual relationship. This book differs also on its emphasis on organizational foundational elements and strategic leadership skills necessary to sustain success. The author has years of experience in turning around failing Medicaid managed care plans and observing what they all had in common that contributed to those failures. One common feature was the deterioration of the relationship with the state Medicaid agency they were contracted with, and how close they all came to losing their multi-million dollar businesses. The purpose of this book is to educate and inspire managed care executives and senior leaders who operate Medicaid health plans and to help them understand what elements are needed for successful health plans and a sustainable relationship with the people directing the state Medicaid agency.

The Government's e-envoy promised in a recent FT article that 'public services will be on-line by 2005 target'. By the end of 2002 taking these services online will have cost GBP3 billion. The task involved is huge, both in terms of human and IT resources. Implementing e-Government is a 'must-have' guide to consultants and civil servants charged with the process. Gloria Evans provides advice and background for addressing the issues at hand and provides the key building blocks for planning, designing and implementing a workable strategy. The book includes: A comparison of the where we were, where we are now and where we need to get to; An explanation of each of the key drivers behind the process; A detailed model of the building blocks needed; Guidance on how to work across departments and agencies; An overview of the various sources of advice and influence; An explanation of the main e-Government technologies; A step-by-step blueprint for planning and implementing the process from scratch. The main text uses a working medical services case study to illustrate how the outcomes of the various stages might be seen and measured and there is a set of 11 scenarios which put the e-Government process into a range of contexts.

This second edition of Welcome to GoodCo updates the author's critically acclaimed analysis of how the tools of business are being (and ought to be) used to help tackle the great problems of both the planet and of local communities. In exploring the increasingly politically relevant issue of 'responsible capitalism' - and its variations - he asks what it means, where it came from, why politicians are so timid around the issue and what exactly are the obstacles this crusade will have to face. He argues that business doing good has to be supported by a business case, as that is what makes it sustainable, but that huge benefits can be reaped. As 60 of the world's top 100 economies are corporates, not countries, businesses that are not helping to create solutions become part of the problem. Added topics in the 2015 edition include: the growth of social value in the commissioning of services and what business can learn from this; the Social Progress Index as an alternative to GDP; and the role for greater corporate citizenship as a way of enhancing employee engagement, with all the benefits that this can bring to a company. It updates the stories and data which made the first edition so readable. In a world in which businesses of all sizes frequently find some of their practices at odds with the basic principles of their customer or citizen promise, Welcome to GoodCo offers a realistic, commercially hard-nosed approach to reframing business in society.

This book offers the first exploration into the development of social enterprises in the Greater China region, consisting of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China. By drawing on the research and experience of over a dozen scholars and practitioners from across the area, it offers a picture of how a strong State can play an important role as a catalyst in developing the social entrepreneurship sector, particularly by legitimizing it. It delves into the role and impact of institutions and policy on the development of social enterprises, and explains how micro and macro factors might interact in influencing social entrepreneurship. Structured in two parts - policy and cases - it reveals the historical development of the Social enterprises sector in the Chinese context and then illustrates this using cases studies. Providing an alternative view of social entrepreneurship by highlighting the importance of context in this new sector, the book questions whether or not social entrepreneurship is preferable to more conventional models of development. Sparking new interest and offering fresh insight into social entrepreneurship in the Greater China region, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Business Studies and Sociology.

This title was first published in 2003.This book explores many of the major issues of concern to researchers studying trade unionism. It offers: a definition, elaboration and contextualisation of militancy (industrial, union and worker); an examination of the relationship between workplace unionism and the wider body of the union; a study of factionalism and industrial and political consciousness: and an analysis of the construction and mobilisation of conflict and cooperation (social partnership). These themes are considered through examining the relatively militant response of British postal workers to increased commercialisation of their industry. By comparing this response to that of postal workers in nine other major industrial countries, the study provides an explanation of why UK postal workers have been relatively successful in resisting new management techniques and privatisation through militancy and oppositionalism. One aspect given particular attention is the uneasy relationship within the postal workers' union between shop floor militancy and the social partnership approach followed by the union's leadership.

Most business readers have heard of the Lean principles developed for factories a set of tools and ideas that have enabled companies to dramatically boost quality by reducing waste and errors producing more while using less. Yet until now, few have recognized how relevant these powerful ideas are to individuals and their daily work. Every person at a desk, drafting table, workstation, or operating table must (like a factory) deal with the challenge of reducing the waste that creeps into their work. The same Lean principles that have improved efficiencies on the factory floor can be just as powerful in fact, far more so in helping individuals boost personal performance. Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award!A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance describes how you can foster a new mindset and improve your performance by applying Lean methods to your work. It translates powerful Lean tools such as visual management, flow, pull, 5S, and kaizen to your daily work, revealing how they can help to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and link you ever more closely to customer value. This practice will help you develop better self-awareness, more disciplined problem-solving skills, and the ability to self-correct errors. This book not only provides the tools, but also teaches you how to find the root causes underlying your inefficiencies so you can eliminate them permanently. It will enable you to immediately improve personal productivity while developing the skills needed for continuous improvement. It includes real-world examples that illustrate how these principles have been successfully applied across a range of industries. Providing the perfect mix of what-to-do with why-to-do it, the text details a step-by-step approach to applying Lean principles to your work. Listen to what Daniel Markovitz has to say about his ne

First published in 1963, Edgar Anstey's work gives a detailed account on the inner workings of the committee. Within a committee, different interests nearly always need to be represented when a decision must be taken, and contributions are required from people of different outlook or expert knowledge. A committee is often the only means of achieving a workable solution to a problem. This book attempts to analyse the functioning of different kinds of committee groups and to bring out the factors which make for efficiency and inefficiency. Types of committee and their purpose are discussed, as well as how to lead a discussion to bring out a genuine group view, the roles of chairman and secretary, how individuals influence committee decisions, good and bad tactics, and how to deal with difficult members.

This book deals with a hospital's struggle to secure and maintain financial stability. In the story, the leadership team of a fictional hospital adopts the tools and principles associated with the Toyota Production System or Lean. The story takes the reader through leadership's arduous journey from rejecting the methodology to embracing it, to successful implementation. This book is important because many of our nation's hospitals are besieged with financial difficulties with declining reimbursement and the public is losing confidence in our hospital's ability to provide quality care without error. Lean can provide relief from these issues but only if it is properly implemented.

The healthcare industry is in a state of accelerated transition. The proliferation of data and its assimilation, access, use, and security are ever-increasing challenges. Finding ways to operationalize business and clinical data management in the face of government and market mandates is enough to keep most chief officers up at night! Leveraging Data in Healthcare: Best Practices for Controlling, Analyzing, and Using Data argues that the key to survival for any healthcare organization in today's data-saturated market is to fundamentally redefine the roles of chief information executives CIOs, CFOs, CMIOs, CTOs, CNIOs, CTOs and CDOs from suppliers of data to drivers of data intelligence. This book presents best practices for controlling, analyzing, and using data. The elements of preparing an actionable data strategy are exemplified on subjects such as revenue integrity, revenue management, and patient engagement. Further, the book illustrates how to operationalize the electronic integration of health and financial data within patient financial services, information management services, and patient engagement activities. An integrated environment will activate a data-driven intelligent decision support infrastructure. The increasing impact of consumer engagement will continue to affect the organization's bottom line. Success in this new world will need collaboration among the chiefs, users, and data creators.

This book gives healthcare leaders a practical guide to implementing the 4 key components of lean daily management system - 1. LDM boards; 2. Leadership rounds 3. Leader daily disciplines and 4. Lean projects. Although lean is not new to healthcare, effective LDM is just now taking hold with the best lean healthcare organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Leaders are realizing that sustaining their lean projects over time has proven to be a challenge without first addressing the organizations management system/model. LDM gives leaders a straightforward approach to do just that as well as improve their ability to spread and deploy lean to other areas of the organization and tie back to strategy.

This book is part of a series of titles that are a spin-off of the Shingo Prize-winning book Leveraging Lean in Healthcare: Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System. Each book in the series focuses on a specific aspect of healthcare including emergency departments, medical laboratories, outpatient clinics, ancillary services, and surgical services that has demonstrated significant process and quality improvements after a Lean implementation. Because ambulatory care settings play a significant role in the healthcare delivery system, it is important to understand how Lean concepts and tools can be used to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care. Leveraging Lean in Outpatient Clinics: Creating a Cost Effective, Standardized, High Quality, Patient-Focused Operation provides a functional understanding of Lean processes and quality improvement techniques in an outpatient clinic environment.This book is an ideal guide for healthcare executives, leaders, process improvement team members, and inquisitive frontline workers who want to implement and leverage Lean in outpatient clinical settings. Supplying detailed descriptions of Lean tools and methodologies, it identifies powerful Lean solutions specific to the needs of outpatient facilities.The first section provides an overview of Lean concepts, tools, methodologies, and applications. The second section focuses on the application of Lean in the outpatient clinic environment. It presents illustrative examples of Lean deployments in primary care, GI, and preadmission testing clinics. The examples provide broad content which can be readily transferable to other outpatient clinic settings.Illustrating leadership's role in achieving departmental goals, this book will provide you with a well-rounded understanding of how Lean can be applied to achieve significant improvements throughout the complete continuum of care.

In addition to processing new applications, requesting clinical privileges, preparing ER call schedules, negotiating contracts, verifying credentials, and conducting meetings and audits, Medical Services Professionals (MSPs) must find time to keep up with evolving regulations and credentialing requirements. Presented in an easy-to-read format, The Medical Services Professional Career Guidebook: Charting a Development Plan for Success details a series of building blocks to help MSPs fulfill job requirements and successfully navigate career progression. The authors capture and address the questions most frequently asked by MSPs. They illustrate valuable lessons with actual stories and supply readers with systematic assessment tools, planning techniques, and strategies for achieving world-class performance. Complete with sample job descriptions, a sample performance profile, a glossary, the Medical Services Professional Creed, and a wealth of reference material, the text will help MSPs answer key questions, including: How do I assess my skills? What are my career options? Are my communication skills what they need to be? How do my boss and I come to agreement on my progress? How do I define, document, and measure my competencies? The book addresses twelve specific points of consideration. Each point is a working exercise to help readers perform honest self-appraisals of where they are in their careers. The Medical Services Professional Career Guidebook details a solid course of action to help you confront the fear of the unknown and meet the future with the confidence required for success. It provides the tools and understanding you will need to ensure patient safety, achieve personal and professional goals, and take your career to levels you have never imagined.

The principles of mistake proofing, long used to eliminate errors and defects across a range of industries, are now being applied in healthcare organizations around the world to help ensure patient safety, improve services, and eliminate waste.Mistake Proofing for Lean Healthcare is based on the definitive mistake-proofing philosophy and system developed by Shigeo Shingo. This reader-friendly book introduces the main concepts and benefits of mistake proofing in healthcare and highlights common reasons that errors and defects occur. It also explains how to catch errors before they become defects, using the concept of "source inspection," so you can ensure quality before a process is performed instead of afterward. When systematically used, the mistake-proofing approach explained in this book will help you: Create safer, more reliable, and more effective healthcare services for both patients and staff Establish a culture in which mistakes and the conditions that cause them are readily surfaced so they can be corrected Lay the foundation for processes that flow smoothly, without disruption Eliminate rework, waste, and the need for extra resources and supplies Presenting real-world healthcare examples, the book shows different types of mistake-proofing devices and methods (poka-yoke) that provide feedback quickly and automatically to prevent errors and defects.The book is part of the Lean Healthcare Series and is designed for individual or group learning. Each chapter includes reflection questions to facilitate understanding and stimulate discussion and action.

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.

While there are a growing number of books based on the Toyota Production System, or lean, focused on healthcare, there are very few that detail the tools that make lean more than just a way of thinking and put the methodology into practice. Based on Hiroyuki Hirano's classic 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace and modeled after the Shingo Prize-winning Shopfloor Series for Lean Manufacturers, 5S for Healthcare adopts a proven reader-friendly format to impart all the information needed to understand and implement this essential lean methodology. It provides examples and cased studies based on the experiences of the principals involved with the Rona Consulting Group, who were responsible for the groundbreaking implementation of the Toyota Production System at the Virginia Mason Medical Center. Written to readily assist with hands-on implementation efforts, this volume offers innovative features designed to improve understanding and support application. This includes helpful how-to-steps and practical examples taken directly from the healthcare industry.

Designed for easy reference, this concise manual provides hospital board members and executives with practical guidance on how to become actively engaged in the transformation of their organization. It focuses on how the healthcare industry as a whole is transforming and stresses the importance of having board members who are knowledgeable and skilled enough to provide leadership during this time of great opportunity. This manual is ideal for orienting new board members and for providing more experienced members with insight on key issues. It supplies a list of questions to ask stakeholders that will facilitate engagement and ultimately encourage participation. Each of the chapters is organized around action steps referred to as Top Healthcare Transformers. These are designed to disseminate best practices, build organizational quality, establish transparency, and develop the culture and leadership needed to facilitate change that is intelligent and progressive. Each of those 10 chapters includes The Problem: A brief, quantitative look at the problem The Transformer: What will transform and make healthcare different Best Practices: Examples of current best practices indicative of the transformer Board Questions: Questions every board member should consider asking and every executive should be prepared to answer A concluding chapter provides the overall governance engagement checklist the things to do to make certain that board members and senior colleagues are engaged and prepared to lead your organization's transformation. Includes a foreword by John R. Combes, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer, Center for Healthcare Governance

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 sat

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.

Direct Pay: A Simpler Way to Practice Medicine examines the direct pay business model as a policy alternative and potential policy solution to the economic, technological, and sociocultural problems that have emerged for practicing physicians as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Based on a research study conducted by the author, the book addresses key research issues that are supported by theory and recent literature.The research and hypotheses presented in the text are tested and proven through a set of questionnaires, interviews with direct pay physicians, and case studies that illustrate how the subject originated and why it is gaining momentum in today's challenging health reform environment.The book provides guidance on direct pay from a public policy perspective. It examines the impact of recent health reform policies and provisions on direct pay physicians, including the individual mandate and universal coverage provisions, patient-centered medical home (PCMH) certification and model of care, provisions to expand Medicaid and changes to reimbursement for Medicare, policy changes from HIPAA, and the HIT policy of Meaningful Use (MU).The book analyzes the organizational style and culture of the participating direct pay practices using theoretical and practical tests of the Competing Values Framework. It not only gauges the practices and policy implementation of direct pay practices, but also searches for variations between pure versus hybrid organizational identity of direct pay practices, and variations between direct pay practices operating on all-inclusive, fee-for-care (FFC) models versus fee-for-service (FFS) payment models.Providing a fundamental understanding of direct pay, the book highlights emerging trends and supplies authoritative analysis on how the direct pay business model can help to advance the practice of medicine through improved efficiency and effectiveness.

Super series are a set of workbooks to accompany the flexible learning programme specifically designed and developed by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) to support their Level 3 Certificate in First Line Management. The learning content is also closely aligned to the Level 3 S/NVQ in Management. The series consists of 35 workbooks. Each book will map on to a course unit (35 books/units).

Intuitively, organisations can easily be categorised as 'public' or 'private'. However, this book questions such a black and white dichotomy between public and private, and seeks a deeper understanding of hybrid organisations. These organisations can be found at micro, meso and macro levels of societal activity, consisting of networks between companies, public agencies and other entities. The line between these two realms is increasingly blurred - giving rise to hybrid organisations. Governing Hybrid Organisations presents an engaging discussion around hybrid organisations, highlighting them as important and fascinating examples of modern institutional diversity. Chapters examine the changing landscape of service delivery and the nature and governance of hybrid organisations, using international examples and cases from different service contexts. The authors put forward a clear analytical framework for understanding hybrid governance, looking at strategy and performance management. This text will be valuable for students of public management, public administration, business management and organisational studies, and will also be illuminating for practising managers.