No single discipline can provide a full account of why health care
is the way it is. Introducing an accessible overview of health
services and drawing on medicine, sociology, economics, history and
epidemiology, this book provides a series of conceptual frameworks
which help to clarify some of the complexity that confronts the
inexperienced observer. Helping to determine what influences and
shapes health services, it also examines some of the key processes
involved in providing healthcare, considering three levels:
individual patients, health care organizations such as hospitals,
and regional or national institutions such as governments. This
second edition has been updated to include recent developments and
further examples and activities from low, middle and high income
countries. The book examines: * how medical knowledge, staff,
patients and finance shape health services * what factors influence
utilization of health services * the roles played by users of
health services * how to define and measure outcomes and assess
performance * how practice and policy can be changed to improve the
quality of health care Understanding Health Services, 2nd Edition
is an essential resource for students of public health and health
policy, researchers, public health practitioners and policy makers.
Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by
Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where it is used as a key learning
resource for postgraduate programmes. It provides self-directed
learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low,
middle and high income countries. "This excellent book provides an
ideal background to understanding how health services work and how
they can be studied. Not tied to any particular country, it
includes key chapters on how health services have developed and are
organised, need and demand, the role of health professionals, and
measuring and improving quality of care. The book is ideal reading
for students on Masters courses in public health and related
subjects from high-, middle- and low-income countries and includes
learning objectives and exercises in each chapter which can be
completed individually or used for discussion. Strongly
recommended." Martin Roland, Emeritus Professor of Health Services
Research, University of Cambridge, UK "Health services are central
to attaining high levels of population health and providing those
services consumes a substantial share of our financial resources.
This book provides a splendid introduction to many of the key
building blocks including medical knowledge and other key inputs,
payment and other factors that influence utilization, and in turn
quality of care and outcomes. The learning objectives are a
wonderful aid for self-directed learning as are the directed
activities and feedback, the text is lucid and the main concepts
are very easy to access. This is a great book for someone looking
to develop a broad understanding of health services. I will be
surprised if it does not become a classic. It will surely be at the
top of my list of recommended readings for my own students." Arnold
M Epstein, John H Foster Professor and Chair, Department of Health
Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, USA
General
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