Healthcare Service Management

Healthcare service systems are of profound importance in promoting the public health and wellness of people. This book introduces a data-driven complex systems modeling approach (D2CSM) to systematically understand and improve the essence of healthcare service systems. In particular, this data-driven approach provides new perspectives on health service performance by unveiling the causes for service disparity, such as spatio-temporal variations in wait times across different hospitals. The approach integrates four methods -- Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)-based analysis; integrated projection; service management strategy design and evaluation; and behavior-based autonomy-oriented modeling -- to address respective challenges encountered in performing data analytics and modeling studies on healthcare services. The thrust and uniqueness of this approach lies in the following aspects: Ability to explore underlying complex relationships between observed or latent impact factors and service performance. Ability to predict the changes and demonstrate the corresponding dynamics of service utilization and service performance. Ability to strategically manage service resources with the adaptation of unpredictable patient arrivals. Ability to figure out the working mechanisms that account for certain spatio-temporal patterns of service utilization and performance. To show the practical effectiveness of the proposed systematic approach, this book provides a series of pilot studies within the context of cardiac care in Ontario, Canada. The exemplified studies have unveiled some novel findings, e.g., (1) service accessibility and education may relieve the pressure of population size on service utilization; (2) functionally coupled units may have a certain cross-unit wait-time relationship potentially because of a delay cascade phenomena; (3) strategically allocating time blocks in operating rooms (ORs) based on a feedback mechanism may benefit OR utilization; (4) patients’ and hospitals’ autonomous behavior, and their interactions via wait times may bear the responsible for the emergence of spatio-temporal patterns observed in the real-world cardiac care system. Furthermore, this book presents an intelligent healthcare decision support (iHDS) system, an integrated architecture for implementing the data-driven complex systems modeling approach to developing, analyzing, investigating, supporting and advising healthcare related decisions. In summary, this book provides a data-driven systematic approach for addressing practical decision-support problems confronted in healthcare service management. This approach will provide policy makers, researchers, and practitioners with a practically useful way for examining service utilization and service performance in various ``what-if" scenarios, inspiring the design of effectiveness resource-allocation strategies, and deepening the understanding of the nature of complex healthcare service systems.

This comprehensive management manual brings together a holistic philosophy of health care, an overview of good business practices, and guidelines for compliance to national and international hospital accreditation standards. Chapters cover conceptual frameworks for health service delivery, strategic planning, good governance, financial management, human resource management, and continuous quality improvement. The philosophy of Ubuntu, the African notion that everyone in a community is responsible for the welfare of its members, is also discussed as a necessary consideration in all heath care decisions.

The world of medical technologies is undergoing a sea change in the domain of consumer culture. Having a grasp on what appeals to consumers and how consumers are making purchasing decisions is essential to the success of any organization that thrives by offering a product or service. As such, it is vital to examine the consumer-centered aspects of medical technological developments that have a patient-centered focus and allow patients to take part in their own personal health and wellness. Consumer-Driven Technologies in Healthcare: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a critical source of academic knowledge on the use of smartphones and other technological devices for cancer therapy, fitness and wellness, chronic disease monitoring, and other areas. The tracking of these items using technology has allowed consumers to take control of their own healthcare. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as clinical decision support systems, patient engagement, and electronic health records, this publication is an ideal reference source for doctors, nurse practitioners, hospital administrators, medical professionals, IT professionals, academicians, and researchers interested in advancing medical practice through technology.

Effective healthcare delivery is a vital concern for citizens and communities across the globe. The numerous facets of this industry require constant re-evaluation and optimization of management techniques. The Handbook of Research on Healthcare Administration and Management is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on emerging strategies and methods for delivering optimal healthcare opportunities and solutions. Highlighting issues relating to decision making, process optimization, and technological applications, this book is ideally designed for policy makers, administrators, students, professionals, and researchers interested in achieving superior healthcare solutions.

This book demonstrates how to successfully manage and lead healthcare institutions by employing the logic of business model innovation to gain competitive advantages. Since clerk-like routines in professional organizations tend to overlook patient and service-centered healthcare solutions, it challenges the view that competition and collaboration in the healthcare sector should not only incorporate single-end services, therapies or diagnosis related groups. Moreover, the authors focus on holistic business models, which place greater emphasis on customer needs and put customers and patients first. The holistic business models approach addresses topics such as business operations, competitiveness, strategic business objectives, opportunities and threats, critical success factors and key performance indicators.The contributions cover various aspects of service business innovation such as reconfiguring the hospital business model in healthcare delivery, essential characteristics of service business model innovation in healthcare, guided business modeling and analysis for business professionals, patient-driven service delivery models in healthcare, and continuous and co-creative business model creation. All of the contributions introduce business models and strategies, process innovations, and toolkits that can be applied at the managerial level, ensuring the book will be of interest to healthcare professionals, hospital managers and consultants, as well as scholars, whose focus is on improving value-generating and competitive business architectures in the healthcare sector.

This concise, reader-friendly, introductory healthcare management text covers a wide variety of healthcare settings, from hospitals to nursing homes and clinics. Filled with examples to engage the reader’s imagination, the important issues in healthcare management, such as ethics, cost management, strategic planning and marketing, information technology, and human resources, are all thoroughly covered.

This book examines the nature of service design and service thinking in healthcare and hospital management. By adopting both a service-based provider perspective and a consumer-oriented perspective, the book highlights various healthcare services, methods and tools that are desirable for customers and effective for healthcare providers. In addition, readers will learn about new research directions, as well as strategies and innovations to develop service solutions that are affordable, sustainable, and consumer-oriented. Lastly, the book discusses policy options to improve the service delivery process and customer satisfaction in the healthcare and hospital sector. The contributors cover various aspects and fields of application of service design and service thinking, including service design processes, tools and methods; service blueprints and service delivery; creation and implementation of services; interaction design and user experience; design of service touchpoints and service interfaces; service excellence and service innovation. The book will appeal to all scholars and practitioners in the hospital and healthcare sector who are interested in organizational development, service business model innovation, customer involvement and perceptions, and service experience.