ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the concept of evidence-based public management (EBMgt) to public health care. This is an issue of global relevance as the inexorable rise in demand for health care continues to outstrip available resources. Spending on health care in France and Germany is 11 percent of GDP, while the United States spends 17.6 percent.1 In a speech to the American Medical Association in June 2009, President Obama compared the U.S. health care system with the country’s ailing car industry, stating, “If we do not fix our healthcare system, America may go the way of General Motors-paying more, getting less, and going broke.”2 The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics reported that between 1997 and 2007 a 117 percent increase in spending on the National Health Service (NHS) had produced only a 52.5 percent increase in health care output. The case for efficient and effective public management, using an evidence-based approach, has never been more pressing.
