System wide health reform has become the norm across the globe, forcing health care delivery organizations to critically examine the ways in which they are structured and operate on a day to day basis. Resource scarcity has become common while at the same time, quality and clinical outcomes become the basis upon which these organizations are measured and compared with one another. This volume of "Advances in Health Care Management" includes contributions from key academic thought leaders from around the world who critically examine how health reform impacts the macro, meso and micro level strategy and policy decisions of healthcare organizations.

This is the second biennial volume reviewing the state-of-the-art on a wide variety of micro and macro health care management topics in the popular "Advances in Health Care Management" series. It proudly showcases reviews of both empirical and conceptual research in specific areas of health care management, including topics in three basic areas: reviews of empirical and conceptual research on health care industry-specific topics, e.g., role of physicians; reviews of empirical and conceptual research on different types of health care organizations focusing on issues specific to such organizations or their segments of the health care industry, e.g., hospitals, managed care organizations; and, reviews of empirical and conceptual research on health care organizations focusing on topics or variables which cover various sub-disciplines of management, e.g., organizational change or entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. New and established scholars discuss such topics within their expert area of research, as well as emerging themes and divergent views, giving their unique perspective on the directions that will help build theory and improve the practice of health care management.