As the U.S. healthcare industry undergoes sweeping changes to increase efficiency and reduce costs, the healthcare workforce is changing as well. In this new system of care, physicians work alongside health care teams, where nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals must collaborate to provide better, more affordable care to many more patients than ever before. The HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE is the first book to codify the transformations underway across health professions in the U.S. and to situate these changes within a larger context for both healthcare and non-healthcare audiences. This volume provides an important guide to understanding how health professionals fit within the emerging model of healthcare, and serves as a vital resource for readers in health policy management, medicine, public health, and organizational studies. Comprising seven unique chapters alongside commentaries from heads of healthcare organizations and influential physicians, THE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE provides a theoretical and practical benchmark for understanding the next generation of human capital in one of society's most important labor sectors.

For all the political branding and rebranding of healthcare in the United States, its fundamental unit of currency remains the doctor-patient relationship. This relationship has undergone seismic changes during the twenty-first century, including the introduction of new players (the so-called healthcare "team") and care delivery in settings like big-box stores and bureaucratic health systems. But are any of us better off? Next in Line is the first book to examine the doctor-patient relationship in the context of its new environs, in particular the impact of efficiency-driven innovation and retail-care models on physician mindsets and the patient experience. The overall picture is one of lowered expectations-a transactional, impersonal, and institutionally-limited incarnation of the medical bedside that leaves all parties underwhelmed and overstressed. By first conducting a macro-analysis of key industry trends (including the widespread use of performance metrics and retail principles), then measuring these trends' impacts through interviews with physicians and patients, Next in Line is both an examination and a critique of a care system at a crossroads. It is essential reading for understanding why relational care matters - and why it must be saved in a corporatized health system bent on using retail approaches to deliver care.

Governments today face a growing set of challenges around the recruitment, retention, and management of their workforces. In short, the job of government today is straightforward: getting the best from its biggest assets-its people. Getting the most from people and building a workplace that promotes top performance is a huge challenge-one that we call "human capital management." Human capital management is increasingly important in an environment where governments are trying to directly improve the performance of their organizations by increasing the "outputs" of their people. The editors of Human Capital 2004 consider this essential element to an effective and efficient management of public agencies. After explaining the role of human capital management and its inherent challenges, the book is divided into two parts, each presenting compelling case studies. The first part explores the workplace challenges. Here the challenge is that of building a workplace, supported by an effective, streamlined personnel system, that promotes top performance. Case studies analyze the IRS, USAID, USPS, and civil service reform in Texas, Georgia, and Florida. The second challenge to human capital management relates to people. The challenge here is getting the most from people. The case studies considered in the portion of the book analyze the Air Force Materiel Command, the Upstate New York Veterans Healthcare Network, the Defense Leadership and Management Program, and the U.S. Army's program on officer retention.