The 20th volume of Advances in Health Care Management showcases how health care management research helps to further understand grand challenges in health care: what they are, why they exist, the consequences that they have, and what can be done to address them. Grand challenges are large, unresolved problems. "Grand health care challenges" include current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing challenges related to the quadruple aim of health care: improving the health of populations, reducing the cost of healthcare, improving patient care experiences, and improving the experience of working in health care. The book demonstrates that these challenges are amenable to organizational and managerial solutions, and therefore health care management research has many important lessons to contribute. For this volume, The Contributions of Health Care Management to Grand Health Care Challenges, we define health care management as the planning, direction, and coordination of health services and the management of health care professionals. Included chapters consider five grand challenges facing the health care sector: (1) caring for vulnerable populations; (2) maintaining the health care workforce; (3) translating innovation into practice; (4) sustaining organizations; and (5) navigating pandemics. Each challenge is discussed in its own section and addressed by two chapters that offer different perspectives and approaches to the challenge. Across chapters a variety of methodologies are used including ethnographic case studies, survey data analysis, interviews, literature review, and informed commentary. Together, the chapters in this volume synthesize current information in the field, direct future research efforts, and generate actionable insights for managers and policymakers.

Inside the Organizational Learning Curve provides an in-depth understanding of the organizational learning curve and why significant differences in the rate of learning exist across organizations. Few studies have "stepped inside the learning curve" to provide greater understanding of the organizational learning process underlying the learning curve. We contend that this understanding is essential for helping organizations learn better and faster, and thus, operate more effectively and efficiently in a dynamic world. Therefore, not only do we examine what is known about organizational learning curves, but also what is known about the organizational learning process. By integrating research from both operations and organizational behavior disciplines, the authors provide a more comprehensive understanding of organizational learning and the organizational learning curve. Inside the Organizational Learning Curve is organized as follows. It begins by reviewing the definition of organizational learning and where it occurs in organizations. In Section 2, it shifts attention to its primary focus - the organizational learning curve. The authors review various learning curve models summarizing the evidence from these models, which shows tremendous variation in organizational learning rates. Section 3 reviews frameworks for understanding this variation in learning rates and discusses variation that arises from differences in experience, deliberate learning activities, and other key sources. Section 4 examines the relative effectiveness of experience versus deliberate learning activities as sources of learning, and contends that these sources of learning affect performance through a process. Section 5 describes the steps that characterize the learning process inside the learning curve: from learning to better organizational knowledge to changed behavior to organizational performance. The authors discuss the significant challenges organizations need to overcome in order to advance along these steps.