Pursuing Excellence In Healthcare

Much as it is with the nation‘s overall healthcare system, the survival of academic medical centers (AMC‘s) is threatened by a combination of economic, cultural, and demographic factors. If AMC‘s are to survive to fill their societal responsibilities, they must adopt a new philosophy. Challenging assumptions and providing the shift in perspective t

"How great to have this practical introduction to doing critical discourse analysis, especially one that provides examples of multimodal discourse analysis. Extremely useful for students who need tools for the study of text, talk and images." - Teun van Dijk, Pompeu Fabra University "The authors have truly achieved the impossible: to make extremely complex phenomena accessible for students and scholars alike. Thus, this textbook will provide a most helpful guide when looking for adequate ways to grasp and analyze the intricate interdependence of written, oral and visual forms of semiosis." - Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University How do media texts manipulate and persuade us? How do language and images play out the ideas, values and identities? This book shows readers exactly how language, power and ideology are negotiated in media texts, from magazine and advertising, to YouTube and music videos. Presenting a systematic toolkit of theories, concepts and techniques for doing language and image analysis, students learn how to dig deep into discourses and the media landscape. With case studies and examples from a range of traditional and new media content, the book equips students to understand the relationship between language, discourse and social practices.

Cultural factors, in both the narrow sense of different national, racial, and ethnic groups, and in the broader sense of different groups of any type, play major roles in individual and group decisions. Written by an international, interdisciplinary group of experts, Cultural Factors in Systems Design: Decision Making and Action explores innovations in the understanding of how cultural differences influence decision making and action. Reflecting the diverse interests and viewpoints that characterize the current state of decision making and cultural research, the chapter authors represent a variety of disciplines and specialize in areas ranging from basic decision processes of individuals, to decisions made in teams and large organizations, to cultural influences on behavior. Balancing theoretical and practical perspectives, the book explores why the best laid plans go awry, examining conditions that can yield unanticipated behaviors from complex, adaptive sociotechnical systems. It highlights the different ways in which East Asians and Westerners make decisions and explores how to model and investigate cultural influences in interpersonal interactions, social judgment, and decision making. The book also reviews decision field theory and examines its implications for cross cultural decision making. With increasing globalization of organizations and interactions among people from various cultures, a better understanding of how cultural factors influence decision making and action is a necessity. Much is known about decision processes, culture and cognition, design of products and interfaces for human interaction with machines and organizational processes, however this knowledge is dispersed across several disciplines and research areas. Presenting a range of current research and new ideas, this volume brings together previously scattered research and explores how to apply it when designing systems that will be used by individuals of varied backgrounds.

This second book in this practical, introductory series on practice issues in healthcare, explores the key issues and factors which influence the workings of a healthcare organisation and how these may be addressed through collaborative working and user focused care - at an introductory and practical level. The book will be presented in three sections: Working in Organisations Collaborative working User Focused Care The emphasis of this second text is on how the organization and those who work within it contribute to (both positively and negatively) the excellence of the healthcare organization and the care it gives. Rather than a theoretical tome on team working, leadership and change management, this book instead highlights and explores the tools and techniques that ALL healthcare staff need to be successful employees and managers delivering excellent care. The authors will outline and examine the evidence available for all areas covered, both to support and to critique excellence standards, and give a lively and practical introduction to the key organizational factors of a healthcare setting. Meaty topics abound, including: Management & leadership, ethics, equity, governance, user-involvement, team working, interprofessional excellence. The focus on multiprofessional working will make this accessible to a variety of healthcare groups. In keeping with the series, the book will include case examples, real-life practice and reflective exercises, as well as the theory needed to inform delivery of excellence. Contributors: Claire Brewis, Dr. Corrina Dickson, Dr. Lee-Ann Fenge, Karen Grimwood, Dr. Sarah Hean, Vanessa Heaslip, Jenny Kell, Melaine McSherry, Dr. Sabi Redwood, Lisa Smith, Kevin Stubbings, Jackie Tonkin, Katie Tucker

In this important book, Brent D. Ruben, distinguished professor of communication and organizational psychology and executive director of the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership at Rutgers University, proposes an inclusive view of excellence for higher education that emphasizes the importance of higher standards in the service and operational dimensions as well as in academics. Pursuing Excellence in Higher Education offers an in-depth examination of eight key challenges for the academy Broadening public appreciation for the work of the academy Increasing our understanding of the needs of workplaces Becoming more effective learning organizations Integrating assessment, planning, and improvement Enhancing collaboration and community Recognizing that everyone in the institution is a teacher Devoting more attention and resources to leadership More broadly framing our vision of excellence Each of the book’s chapters features narratives contributed by colleagues from across the nation and the higher education enterprise that clearly illustrate the challenges and responses to them. The book also explores the fundamental question of developing a vision for higher education that emphasizes excellence in practice and challenges everyone involved to achieve greater goals in the future.

Describes how to build a competitive edge by developing superior operations This comprehensive, practice-oriented text illustrates how healthcare organizations can gain a competitive edge through superior operations – and demonstrates how to achieve them. Underscoring the importance of a strategic perspective, the book describes how to attain excellence in the four competitive priorities: quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility. The competitive priorities are interrelated, with excellent quality laying the foundation for performance in the other competitive priorities, and with targeted improvement initiatives having synergistic effects. The text stresses the benefits of aligning the entire operations system within the parameters of a business strategy. It equips students with a conceptual mental model of healthcare operations in which all concepts and tools fit together logically. With a hands-on approach, the book clearly demonstrates the “how-tos” of effectively managing a healthcare organization. It describes how to negotiate the different perspectives of clinicians and administrators by offering a common platform for building competitive advantage. To bring the cultural context of a healthcare organization to life, the book engages students with a series of short vignettes of a fictitious healthcare organization as it strives to achieve the status of a highly reliable organization. Integrated throughout are a variety of tools and quantitative techniques with step-by-step instructions to assist in problem solving and process improvements. Also included are mind maps linking competitive priorities and concepts, quick-reference icons, dashboards displaying measurement and process tracking, and boxed features. Several project ideas, team assignments, and creative thinking exercises are proposed. A comprehensive Instructor Packet and online tutorials further enhance the book’s outstanding value. Key Features: Includes mind maps to connect competitive priorities, concepts, and tools Provides an extensive tool kit for problem solving and process improvements Presents icons throughout the text to emphasize competitive priorities and tool coverage Emphasizes measurement with dashboards and includes data files for statistical process control, queuing, and simulation Demonstrates human dynamics and organizational challenges through realistic vignettes Presents boxed features of frequently asked questions an real-world implementations of concepts Provides comprehensive Instructor Packet and online tutorials

Practical, proven techniques for improving team performance in the health care world Teams and collaboration have become an expectation in most healthcare facilities and environments. It is accepted that high performance, patient focused teams are critical to quality patient care. However, there is often a wide gap between traditional practices and the new behaviours and practices required for teamwork and collaboration. Improving Health Care Team Performance goes beyond theory to provide the knowledge, tools, and techniques required to develop a single team, or to develop an organization wide team based culture, from which exceptional patient care emerges. Most uniquely it emphasizes that effective teamwork goes far beyond team dynamics and provides detailed description of additional requirements, such as shared learning and change compatibility, and how to fulfill them. A practical handbook for healthcare leaders striving to ensure a superior patient experience and high quality of care, Improving Healthcare Team Performance not only provides specifics on how to develop high functioning teams, whether multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or departmental but also offers those dealing with the common healthcare leadership challenges of low morale, poor communication, interpersonal conflict, and lack of knowledge sharing the tools to take immediate action to improve performance. Providing a proven approach to addressing and preventing everyday issues impacting patient care, Improving Health Care Team Performance contains everything needed to identify areas of greatest need within a team or department, take targeted action to address key gaps, and measure progress towards positive change. Presents a clear depiction of what constitutes collaboration and a high-performing patient focused team. This includes the skills and practices required to improve team performance and ultimately the quality of patient care, how to develop new attitudes and behaviours within the team, as well as the leadership requirements for success in a patient focused, team based culture. Provides a set of development tools accessible online to help the reader quickly and easily apply the knowledge gleaned. Offers targeted solutions including tips/recommendations, a step-by-step approach for affecting necessary change at every level of the organization, and skills and team development activities. Designed for leaders working in any healthcare environment, Improving Health Care Team Performance is a practical approach to improving team performance and the quality of patient care.