ABSTRACT

This title was first published in 2001. Enhancing the quality of health services remains a key challenge for all health systems, whatever their stage of development. This collection of leading-edge research from Europe and America explores both quantitative and qualitative approaches to identifying and remedying deficiencies in health care.

section Section One|26 pages

System Issues

chapter Chapter One|14 pages

The Sisyphean Challenge: Health Services Integration

ByThomas G. Rundall

chapter Chapter Two|10 pages

Process Innovation in Health Care: A New Model for the New Knowledge Economy

ByMattia J. Gilmartin, David Melzer

section Section Two|77 pages

Bringing about Quality Improvement

chapter Chapter Four|7 pages

Health Reforms and Quality of Care: Lessons Learnt from Ghana and Central America

ByVictoria Doyle, David Haran

chapter Chapter Five|14 pages

Life Cycles in Vivo: Views from the Front Line in the Implementation of a Performance Management System

ByPeter Buckley, James Watkin

chapter Chapter Six|21 pages

Benchmarking Bed Management: the State of the Art? An Exploration of Best Practice in Bed Management

ByRuth Boaden, Paul Haywood, John Turner, Mary Massey

chapter Chapter Eight|13 pages

Transformational Change in Health Care Quality: Systemic Reorientation – Not Magic Bullets

ByHuw Talfryn Oakley Davies

section Section Three|65 pages

Variations in Health Care

chapter Chapter Nine|11 pages

Variance in Practice Emergency Medical Admission Rates: Is it Due to Patients, Doctors or Society?

ByRebecca Duffy, Harry Staines

chapter Chapter Ten|26 pages

Variations in General Practitioner Referral Rates: Are there Lessons in the Literature?

ByCatherine A. O’Donnell

chapter Chapter Eleven|14 pages

Going Public on Clinical Performance: Lessons from the USA

ByMartin N. Marshall

chapter Chapter Twelve|12 pages

On the Limitations and Pitfalls of Performance Measurement Systems in Health Care

ByRussell Mannion, Maria Goddard, Peter C. Smith

section Section Four|42 pages

Incorporating User Views

chapter Chapter Thirteen|11 pages

What do Older People Expect from Health and Social Care in the Community?

ByP. Kliempt, D. Ruta, S. Ogston, M. McMurdo

chapter Chapter Fourteen|14 pages

Serving all the Community? The Views and Preferences of Lesbian and Gay Consumers of Health Care

ByYaniv Poria, Adrian Coyle, Terry Desombre

chapter Chapter Fifteen|15 pages

Strategic Health Care Policy and Development for Maori, the Indigenous People of New Zealand

ByLynette Stewart, Louise Davis, Sharon Shea

section Section Five|14 pages

Choice

chapter Chapter Sixteen|12 pages

Limited Access to Alternative Models of Maternity Care in the UK: Barriers to Change

ByJ.S. Tucker, W.J. Graham, M.H. Hall