Healthcare Reform, Quality and Safety

Healthcare Reform, Quality and Safety
Author: Jeffrey Braithwaite
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2015-03-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1472451422

This book offers a global perspective on healthcare reform and its relationship with efforts to improve quality and safety. It looks at the ways reforms have developed in 30 countries, and specifically the impact national reform initiatives have had on the quality and safety of care. It explores how reforms drive quality and safety improvement, and equally how they act to negate such goals. Every country included in this book is involved in a reform and improvement process, but each takes place in a particular social, cultural, economic and developmental context, leading to differing emphases and varied progress. Methods for tackling common problems - financing, efficiencies, effectiveness, evidence-based practice, institutional reforms, quality improvement, and patient safety initiatives - also differ. Representatives from each nation provide a chapter to convey their own situation. The editors draw a conclusion from these numerous contributions and synthesize the themes emerging into a coherent ‘lessons learned’ summary that delivers value to the numerous stakeholders. Healthcare Reform, Quality and Safety forms a compendium of the current ‘state of the art’ in global healthcare reform. This is the first book of its type, and offers a unique opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas to the mutual benefit of countries involved in the project. The content will be of interest to governments, policymakers, managers and leaders, clinicians, teaching academics, researchers and students.

Health Care Will Not Reform Itself

Health Care Will Not Reform Itself
Author: George C. Halvorson
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2009-05-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1439837880

Health care reform is within our reach. According to George Halvorson, CEO of the nation's largest private health care plan, only by improving the intent, quality, and reach of services will we achieve a health system that is economically feasible into the future. This year, Americans will spend 2.5 trillion for health services that are poorly coordinated, inconsistent, and most typically focused on the belated care of chronic conditions. What we have to show for that expenditure is a nation that continues to become more obese, less healthy, and more depressed. In Health Care Will Not Reform Itself, Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson proves beyond a doubt that the tragically inconsistent care that currently defines the state of U.S. health services is irresponsible, irrational, but more importantly, fixable. With detail that might shock you, he shows why the nonsystem we now use is failing. Then, applying the same sensible leadership that makes Kaiser the most progressive health care organization in the world, he answers President Obama’s mandate for reform with a profound incentive-based, system-supported, goal-focused, care-improvement plan. Halvorson draws from respected studies, including his own, and the examples of successful systems across the world to show that while good health care is expensive, it is nowhere near as costly as bad health care. To immediately curb care costs and bring us in line with President Obama's projected parameters, he recommends that we: Take a preventive approach to the chronic conditions that account for the lion’s share of medical costs Coordinate patient care through a full commitment to information technology Increase the pool of contributors by mandating universal insurance Rearrange priorities by making health maintenance profitable Convene a national committee to "figure out the right thing" and "make it easy to do" While this book offers sage advice to policy makers, it is also written to educate the 260 million stakeholders and invite their participation in the debate that is now shaping. What makes this plan so easy to understand and so compelling is that it never strays from a profound truth: that the best health system is one that actually focuses on good health for everyone. All royalties from the sale of this book go to Oakland Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved

Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination

Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2018-04-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030946921X

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

The Challenge to Change

The Challenge to Change
Author: Rebecca Kolins Givan
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2016-08-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1501706020

There is constant pressure on hospitals to improve health care delivery and increase cost effectiveness. New initiatives are the order of the day in the dramatically different health care systems of the United States and Great Britain. Often, as we know all too well, these efforts are not successful. In The Challenge to Change, Rebecca Kolins Givan analyzes the successes and failures of efforts to improve hospitals and explains what factors make it likely that the implementation of reforms will rewarded by positive transformation in a particular institution’s day-to-day operation. Givan’s in-depth qualitative case studies of both top-down initiatives and changes first suggested by staff on the front lines of care point clearly to the importance of all hospital workers in effecting change and even influencing national policy. Givan illuminates the critical role of workers, managers, and unions in enabling or constraining changes in policies and procedures and ensuring their implementation. Givan spotlights an Anglo-American model of hospital care and work organization, even while these countries retain their differences in access and payment. Entrenched professional roles, hierarchical workplace organization, and the sometimes-detached view of policymakers all shape the prospects for change in hospitals. Givan provides important examples of how the dedication and imagination of the people who work in hospitals can make all the difference when it comes to providing quality health care even in a challenging economic environment.

Intelligent Kindness

Intelligent Kindness
Author: John Ballatt
Publisher: RCPsych Publications
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2011-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781908020048

This book calls on policymakers, managers, educators and clinical staff to apply and nurture intelligent kindness in the organisation and delivery of care.

Evidence-Based Medicine and the Changing Nature of Health Care

Evidence-Based Medicine and the Changing Nature of Health Care
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2008-09-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309113695

Drawing on the work of the Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine, the 2007 IOM Annual Meeting assessed some of the rapidly occurring changes in health care related to new diagnostic and treatment tools, emerging genetic insights, the developments in information technology, and healthcare costs, and discussed the need for a stronger focus on evidence to ensure that the promise of scientific discovery and technological innovation is efficiently captured to provide the right care for the right patient at the right time. As new discoveries continue to expand the universe of medical interventions, treatments, and methods of care, the need for a more systematic approach to evidence development and application becomes increasingly critical. Without better information about the effectiveness of different treatment options, the resulting uncertainty can lead to the delivery of services that may be unnecessary, unproven, or even harmful. Improving the evidence-base for medicine holds great potential to increase the quality and efficiency of medical care. The Annual Meeting, held on October 8, 2007, brought together many of the nation's leading authorities on various aspects of the issues - both challenges and opportunities - to present their perspectives and engage in discussion with the IOM membership.

The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies

The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies
Author: Mr.David Coady
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2012-04-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475583788

Using cross-country analysis and case studies, this book provides new insights and potential policy responses for the key fiscal policy challenges that both advanced and emerging economies will be facing.

Healthcare Reform in America

Healthcare Reform in America
Author: Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1610699653

Background and history -- Problems, controversies, and solutions -- Perspectives -- Profiles -- Data and documents -- Resources for further research -- Chronology

Crossing the Global Quality Chasm

Crossing the Global Quality Chasm
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2019-01-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309477891

In 2015, building on the advances of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals that include an explicit commitment to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, enormous gaps remain between what is achievable in human health and where global health stands today, and progress has been both incomplete and unevenly distributed. In order to meet this goal, a deliberate and comprehensive effort is needed to improve the quality of health care services globally. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide focuses on one particular shortfall in health care affecting global populations: defects in the quality of care. This study reviews the available evidence on the quality of care worldwide and makes recommendations to improve health care quality globally while expanding access to preventive and therapeutic services, with a focus in low-resource areas. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm emphasizes the organization and delivery of safe and effective care at the patient/provider interface. This study explores issues of access to services and commodities, effectiveness, safety, efficiency, and equity. Focusing on front line service delivery that can directly impact health outcomes for individuals and populations, this book will be an essential guide for key stakeholders, governments, donors, health systems, and others involved in health care.

China's Healthcare System and Reform

China's Healthcare System and Reform
Author: Lawton Robert Burns
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 744
Release: 2017-01-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1316738396

This volume provides a comprehensive review of China's healthcare system and policy reforms in the context of the global economy. Following a value-chain framework, the 16 chapters cover the payers, the providers, and the producers (manufacturers) in China's system. It also provides a detailed analysis of the historical development of China's healthcare system, the current state of its broad reforms, and the uneasy balance between China's market-driven approach and governmental regulation. Most importantly, it devotes considerable attention to the major problems confronting China, including chronic illness, public health, and long-term care and economic security for the elderly. Burns and Liu have assembled the latest research from leading health economists and political scientists, as well as senior public health officials and corporate executives, making this book an essential read for industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, and students studying comparative health systems across the world.