Managing A Canadian Healthcare Strategy

Canada’s fragmented healthcare system is one of the most expensive among the OECD countries, yet the quality of its performance is mediocre at best. Canada lacks a system-wide healthcare strategy that brings together many individual federal, provincial, and territorial strategies into a comprehensive and coherent whole. Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy is a collection of ten policy research essays by leading Canadian and international scholars who address three important questions. First, if Canada had a unifying strategy, how would the country measure its success and monitor its performance? Second, who are the agents of change to bring about a Canadian system-wide strategy? Third, how can the jurisdictional realities of Canada’s political system be managed to bring about strategic reform? The final section in the volume explores ways to overcome the barriers and impediments that preoccupy Canadians’ concerns about healthcare. A companion volume to Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians, the contributors to Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy turn to the critical importance of how necessary healthcare changes can be best implemented.

While Canadians are proud of their healthcare system, the reality is that it is fragmented and disorganized. Instead of a pan-Canadian system, it is a "system of systems" - thirteen provincial and territorial systems and a federal system. As a result, Canadian healthcare has not only become one of the costliest in the world, but is falling well behind many developed countries in terms of quality. Canadians increasingly realize that their healthcare system is no longer fiscally sustainable, yet change remains elusive. The standard claim is that Canada's multijurisdictional approach makes system-wide reform nearly impossible. Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians disputes this reasoning, making the case for a comprehensive, system-wide, made-in-Canada healthcare strategy. It looks at the mechanics of change and suggests ways in which the various participants in the system - governments, healthcare professionals, the private sector, and patients - can work collaboratively to transform a second-rate system. Addressing critical issues of health human resources, electronic health records, integrated care, and pharmacare, Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians shows how a system-wide strategic approach to this crucial policy area can make a difference in Canada’s healthcare system in the future.

This collection is the result of a 2016 national leaders conference sponsored by Queen’s University to explore the prospects for a pan-Canadian healthcare innovation strategy. The conference themes were inspired by the 2015 report of the federally commissioned Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation, led by David Naylor, which examined how the federal government could support innovation. A Canadian Healthcare Innovation Agenda features original commissioned chapters from academics and healthcare leaders addressing a range of issues such as the meaning of healthcare innovation, how a national healthcare agency and investment fund could be governed, the need for big data and evidence, adding value through Canadian supply-chain management, overcoming regulatory barriers to innovation, policy innovations for indigenous, military and elderly populations, the role of medical professions in promoting innovation, education, and the development of medical innovators. The Canadian healthcare system is so fragmented that any thought of a system-wide strategy for healthcare innovation is considered a far-distant ideal at best. This book presents a contrary view, outlining an agenda for Canadian healthcare innovation. It shows that Canada does indeed have the building blocks for innovation, and concludes that the time to act is now.

Canada’s fragmented healthcare system is one of the most expensive among the OECD countries, yet the quality of its performance is mediocre at best. Canada lacks a system-wide healthcare strategy that brings together many individual federal, provincial, and territorial strategies into a comprehensive and coherent whole. Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy is a collection of ten policy research essays by leading Canadian and international scholars who address three important questions. First, if Canada had a unifying strategy, how would the country measure its success and monitor its performance? Second, who are the agents of change to bring about a Canadian system-wide strategy? Third, how can the jurisdictional realities of Canada’s political system be managed to bring about strategic reform? The final section in the volume explores ways to overcome the barriers and impediments that preoccupy Canadians’ concerns about healthcare. A companion volume to Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians, the contributors to Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy turn to the critical importance of how necessary healthcare changes can be best implemented.

This book explores the planning, management, and implementation of mission-driven healthcare strategy. The author presents practical concepts and their real-life applications, highlighting the importance of both competitive and collaborative strategies to an organization's success in the healthcare marketplace. Topics covered include: core concepts of strategies, including market structure, business models, generic, first-mover, growth and integration strategies, and alliances; the relationship between strategy and an organization's key stakeholders, values, mission, and vision; common tools and methods used to evaluate the external and internal environments; how strategic, marketing, and business plans should be developed and executed; strategic change management and leadership, and the impact of organizational structure on strategy; and follow-up methods and tools for monitoring and evaluating strategic results. --

A comprehensive guide to effective strategic management of health care organizations. Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations provides essential guidance for leading health care organizations through strategic management. This structured approach to strategic management examines the processes of strategic thinking, consensus building and documentation of that thinking into a strategic plan, and creating and maintaining strategic momentum – all essential for coping with the rapidly evolving health care industry. Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations fully explains how strategic managers must become strategic thinkers with the ability to evaluate a changing industry, analyze data, question assumptions, and develop new ideas. The book guides readers through the strategic planning process demonstrating how to incorporate strategic thinking and create and document a clear and coherent plan of action. In addition, the all-important processes of creating and maintaining the strategic momentum of the organization are fully described. Finally, the text demonstrates how strategic managers in carrying out the strategic plan, must evaluate its success, learn more about what works, and incorporate new strategic thinking into operations and subsequent planning. This strategic management approach has become the de facto standard for health care management as leadership and strategic management are more critical than ever in coping with an industry in flux. This book provides heath care management students as well as health care administrators with foundational guidance on strategic management concepts and practices, tailored to the unique needs of the health care industry. Included are a clear discussion of health services external analysis, organizational internal analysis, the development of directional strategies, strategy alternative identification and evaluation, and the development and management of implementation strategies providing an informative and insightful resource for anyone in the field. This new eighth edition has been fully updated to reflect new insights into strategic thinking, new methods to conceptualize and document critical environmental issues, practical steps for carrying out each of the strategic management processes, industry and management essentials for strategic thinkers , and new case studies for applying the strategic management processes. More specifically, readers of this edition will be able to: Create a process for developing a strategic plan for a health care organization. Map and analyze external issues, trends, and events in the general environment, the health care system, and the service area. Conduct a comprehensive service area competitor analysis. Perform an internal analysis and determine the competitive advantages and competitive disadvantages. Develop directional strategies. Identify strategic alternatives and make rational strategic decisions for a health care organization. Develop a comprehensive strategy for a health care organization. Create effective value-adding service delivery and support strategies. Translate service delivery and support plans into specific action plans. The health care industry’s revolutionary change remains ongoing and organizational success depends on leadership. Strategic management has become the single clearest manifestation of effective leadership of health care organizations and the strategic management framework’s strengths are needed now more than ever. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations provides comprehensive guidance and up-to-date practices to help leaders keep their organizations on track.