Poor healthcare quality is a public health emergency. Landmark reports by the Institute of Medicine and other leading groups exposed the continuing inadequacies that plague the United States healthcare system. Despite the red flags that these reports raised, there has been only marginal improvement in healthcare quality. Therefore, improving the quality of health care should be one of our highest public health priorities. the Institute of Medicine called the substantial gulf between the vision of ideal care and the reality of what most individuals receive a quality chasm. the Quality Solutio

Leadership/Management/Administration

During the last few years, components of the health care system in the United States have changed more rapidly than ever before. New industry developments, health insurance changes, and major cost increases have significant implications for both providers and consumers. Changes in the Medicare program on which all other service charges are based, double digit premium increases by managed care companies, the growing number of uninsured, and a nation-wide movement among physicians to set up ambulatory diagnostic, surgical, and other treatment centers in competition with hospitals are changing the structure and operation of the U.S. health care system. The 5th edition contains updated service utilization and financial information as well as updated health care industry trends with the latest developments. All existing tables and charts have been updated and new tables and charts have been added to highlight trends and illustrate major points of the narrative.

Designated a Doody's Core Title! "Medical economics and finance is an integral component of the health care industrial complex. Its language is a diverse and broad-based concept covering many other industries: accounting, insurance, mathematics and statistics, public health, provider recruitment and retention, Medicare, health policy, forecasting, aging and long-term care, are all commingled arenas....The Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance will be an essential tool for doctors, nurses and clinicians, benefits managers, executives and health care administrators, as well as graduate students and patientsÖ With more than 5,000 definitions, 3,000 abbreviations and acronyms, and a 2,000 item oeuvre of resources, readings, and nomenclature derivativesÖ it covers the financial and economics language of every health care industry sector." - From the Preface by David Edward Marcinko

Error Reduction in Health Care Completely revised and updated, this second edition of Error Reduction in Health Care offers a step-by-step guide for implementing the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine to reduce the frequency of errors in health care services and to mitigate the impact of errors when they do occur. With contributions from noted leaders in health safety, Error Reduction in Health Care provides information on analyzing accidents and shows how systematic methods can be used to understand hazards before accidents occur. In the chapters, authors explore how to prioritize risks to accurately focus efforts in a systems redesign, including performance measures and human factors. This expanded edition covers contemporary material on innovative patient safety topics such as applying Lean principles to reduce mistakes, opportunity analysis, deductive adverse event investigation, improving safety through collaboration with patients and families, using technology for patient safety improvements, medication safety, and high reliability organizations. The Editor

An analysis of the efforts of American nurses to establish nursing as an academic discipline and nurses as valued researchers in the decades after World War II. Nurses represent the largest segment of the U.S. health care workforce and spend significantly more time with patients than any other member of the health care team. Dr. Nurse probes their history to examine major changes that have taken place in American health care in the second half of the twentieth century. The book reveals how federal and state health and higher education policies shaped education within health professions after World War II. Starting in the 1950s, academic nurses sought to construct a science of nursing—distinct from that of the related biomedical or behavioral sciences—that would provide the basis for nursing practice. Their efforts transformed nursing’s labor into a valuable site of knowledge production and proved how the application of their knowledge was integral to improving patient outcomes. Exploring the knowledge claims, strategies, and politics involved as academic nurses negotiated their roles and nursing’s future, Dr. Nurse highlights how state-supported health centers have profoundly shaped nursing education and health care delivery.

Designated a Doody's Core Title! To keep up with the ever-changing field of health care, we must learn new and re-learn old terminology in order to correctly apply it to practice. By bringing together the most up-to-date abbreviations, acronyms, definitions, and terms in the health care industry, the Dictionary offers a wealth of essential information that will help you understand the ever-changing policies and practices in health insurance and managed care today.

As a contribution to the emerging healthcare quality movement, Patient Advocacy for Healthcare Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-Centered Care is distinct from any others of its kind in its focus on the consumer’s perspective and in its emphasis on how advocacy can influence change at multiple social levels. This introductory volume synthesizes patient advocacy from a multi-level approach and is an ideal text for graduate and professional students in schools of public health, nursing and social work.

In almost all Western countries, concerted efforts are made to stimulate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in health care. Yet the number of success stories are few and the frustrations many. In this key textbook, readers are introduced to the challenges, the lessons learned and the new insights of health information managem