Handbook Of Healthcare Delivery Systems

With rapidly rising healthcare costs directly impacting the economy and quality of life, resolving improvement challenges in areas such as safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity has become paramount. Using a system engineering perspective, Handbook of Healthcare Delivery Systems offers theoretical foundations, methodologies, and case studies in each main sector of the system. It explores how system engineering methodologies and their applications in designing, evaluating, and optimizing the operations of the healthcare system could improve patient outcomes and cost effectiveness. The book presents an overview of current challenges in the healthcare system and the potential impact of system engineering. It describes an integrated framework for the delivery system and the tools and methodologies used for performance assessment and process improvement with examples of lean concept, evidence-based practice and risk assessment. The book then reviews system engineering methodologies and technologies and their applications in healthcare. Moving on to coverage of the design, planning, control and management of healthcare systems, the book contains chapters on 12 services sectors: preventive care, telemedicine, transplant, pharmacy, ED/ICU, OR, decontamination, laboratory, emergency response, mental health, food and supplies, and information technology. It presents the state-of-the-art operations and examines the challenges in each service unit. While system engineering concepts have been broadly applied in healthcare systems, most improvements have focused on a specific segment or unit of the delivery system. Each unit has strong interactions with others and any significant improvement is more likely to be sustained over time by integrating the process and re-evaluating the system design from a holistic viewpoint. By providing an overview of individual operational sectors in the extremely complex healthcare system and introducing a wide array of engineering methods and tools, this handbook establishes the foundation to facilitate integrated system thinking to redesign the next generation healthcare system.

This edited volume captures and communicates the best thinking on how to improve healthcare by improving the delivery of services -- providing care when and where it is needed most -- through application of state-of-the-art scheduling systems. Over 12 chapters, the authors cover aspects of setting appointments, allocating healthcare resources, and planning to ensure that capacity matches needs for care. A central theme of the book is increasing healthcare efficiency so that both the cost of care is reduced and more patients have access to care. This can be accomplished through reduction of idle time, lessening the time needed to provide services and matching resources to the needs where they can have the greatest possible impact on health. Within their chapters, authors address: (1) Use of scheduling to improve healthcare efficiency. (2) Objectives, constraints and mathematical formulations. (3) Key methods and techniques for creating schedules. (4) Recent developments that improve the available problem solving methods. (5) Actual applications, demonstrating how the methods can be used. (6) Future directions in which the field of research is heading. Collectively, the chapters provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of models and methods for scheduling the delivery of patient care for all parts of the healthcare system. Chapter topics include setting appointments for ambulatory care and outpatient procedures, surgical scheduling, nurse scheduling, bed management and allocation, medical supply logistics and routing and scheduling for home healthcare.

Described in the New York Times as “an astonishingly clear ‘user’s manual’ that explains our health care system and the policies that will change it,” The Health Care Handbook, by Drs. Elisabeth Askin and Nathan Moore, offers a practical, neutral, and readable overview of the U.S. health care system in a compact, convenient format. The fully revised third edition provides concise coverage on health care delivery, insurance and economics, policy, and reform—all critical components of the system in which health care professionals work. Written in a conversational and accessible tone, this popular, highly regarded handbook serves as a “one stop shop” for essential facts, systems, concepts, and analysis of the U.S. health care system, providing the tools you need to confidently evaluate current health care policy and controversies.

From the Preface: Collectively, the chapters in this book address application domains including inpatient and outpatient services, public health networks, supply chain management, and resource constrained settings in developing countries. Many of the chapters provide specific examples or case studies illustrating the applications of operations research methods across the globe, including Africa, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Chapters 1-4 review operations research methods that are most commonly applied to health care operations management including: queuing, simulation, and mathematical programming. Chapters 5-7 address challenges related to inpatient services in hospitals such as surgery, intensive care units, and hospital wards. Chapters 8-10 cover outpatient services, the fastest growing part of many health systems, and describe operations research models for primary and specialty care services, and how to plan for patient no-shows. Chapters 12 – 16 cover topics related to the broader integration of health services in the context of public health, including optimizing the location of emergency vehicles, planning for mass vaccination events, and the coordination among different parts of a health system. Chapters 17-18 address supply chain management within hospitals, with a focus on pharmaceutical supply management, and the challenges of managing inventory for nursing units. Finally, Chapters 19-20 provide examples of important and emerging research in the realm of humanitarian logistics.

No health care professional in Canada should be without a clear understanding of the Canadian health care system! Health and Health Care Delivery in Canada, 2nd Edition explores the nation's basic approach to health, wellness, and illness. Set entirely within a Canadian context, this text includes coverage of individual and population health, the role of federal agencies and provincial governments, health care funding, and current issues and future trends in health care. Written by experienced educator and nurse practitioner, Valerie Thompson, this textbook is ideal for all students beginning a career in health care. Clear, easy-to-understand approach to health care in Canada begins with an overview of health, wellness, and illness and proceeds through the fundamentals of the Canadian health care system, such as population health, ethical and legal issues, health care funding and principles, practice settings, and changing trends. Learning Outcomes outline the knowledge that you should gain in each chapter. Key Terms open each chapter and include page references for definitions. Student-friendly learning aids include summary tables and boxes, photographs, figures, and illustrations. Review questions at the end of every chapter test your comprehension of the material. Case examples provide real-world scenarios related to the chapter content. In The News boxes highlight landmark case law, research developments, emerging health issues, and ethical challenges. Thinking It Through questions ask you to critically consider key aspects of health and health care delivery. NEW! Coverage of issues and trends includes expanded information on mental health issues, aboriginal health, privatization, use of electronic health records, and interprofessional health care practice.

The essential healthcare guide to doing more with existing resources The healthcare industry faces foundational challenges to how it sustains itself. As the gap between cost and revenue continues to widen, and as cost-effectiveness remains an elusive imperative, the question persists: how can healthcare organizations do more with the same resources? The Hospital and Clinic Improvement Handbook is a practical guide to how operations management -- in particular Lean and the Theory of Constraints (TOC) -- can rapidly advance value and performance in any healthcare organization. Utilizing a systems approach that will be relevant for healthcare managers and executives, it unpacks and demystifies concepts such as performance measures, operations, quality, cost accounting, pricing, and value enhancement, all as they relate to eliminating waste and non-value-adding activities. Enriched with dozens of examples and building on the authors' experience teaching and refining these concepts for healthcare, this text is an essential guide for executives and managers across the industry.

This handbook shares profound insights into the main principles and concepts of integrated care. It offers a multi-disciplinary perspective with a focus on patient orientation, efficiency, and quality by applying widely recognized management approaches to the field of healthcare. The handbook also highlights international best practices and shows how integrated care can work in various health systems. In the majority of health systems around the world, the delivery of healthcare and social care is characterised by fragmentation and complexity. Consequently, much of the recent international discussion in the fields of health policy and health management has focused on the topic of integrated care. “Integrated” acknowledges the complexity of patients’ needs and aims to meet them by taking into account both health and social care aspects. Changing and improving processes in a coordinated way is at the heart of this approach. The second edition offers new chapters on people-centredness, complexity theories and evaluation methods, additional management tools and a wealth of experiences from different countries and localities. It is essential reading both for health policymakers seeking inspiration for legislation and for practitioners involved in the management of public health services who want to learn from good practice.