This book describes numerous projects which shed light on some of the most persistent issues of the day in health and social care. The work demonstrates the importance of embedding the concept of flow into everyday health and social care thinking and creates insights into patient journeys through different conditions and treatments. It suggests that improving throughput across agencies is the key way to improving the performance of health treatment, whereas increasing capacity is the key way to improving the performance of social care by retaining independent living. The authors conclude that for state-provided care, balancing health and social care provision can eliminate the many stressful fire-fighting strategies hospitals have to undertake when faced with high demands, and this is a win-win scenario in terms of patients, staff and costs. Further, that there is a need for better understanding of the dynamics of population ageing, the dynamics of health conditions and the provision of better, integrated information systems. The book will be a valuable resource for practitioners, clinicians, managers and academics in health, social work, public health and public policy in many countries. In this important book Eric Wolstenholme and Douglas McKelvie bring two lifetimes of award-winning experience in applying system dynamics to improving our very clinically advanced but often dysfunctional care systems.- David F. Andersen, O’Leary Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, State University of New York, Albany, USA. Health and social care suffer from some persistent and serious problems which not only undermine well intended care but also impose considerable costs in many societies. This very welcome and exceptional book offers the hope of sound and sustainable solutions to many of these issues. - Kim Warren, Strategy Dynamics, London, UK

The impact of health policy and planning are tremendous remedies through which the health care systems derive their primary potentials in the health promotion ventures and interventions. The programs designed in the health arena are tentatively equivocal and submissive to the implications influenced by the policy development criteria and much more open to the planning process. Every day, healthcare organizations are faced with crucial decisions about improving their systems of care and a lack of critical information to guide them. The research they need should be designed to help them provide better care to the patients in their organization, effectively and efficiently. Where does the Medicaid and the medical care strategies, as pursued in the United States of America, have their remedies through policy structure and together with the political culture associated to the system, or perhaps how possible is it that japan has the highest life expectancy co-efficient. The book is more of a fact file as results were generated by the health care research from suitable sectors and comparisons derived from the well-off health care states mainly from the OECD fraternity, as these bare differences due to policy even when their economic bases differ by small percentages. This work should be helpful in directing and providing us with traceable landmarks to follow while seeking to avert the challenges that weaponize the communicable disease prevalence in the society for both the developed and the low developed states.

How do you perceive your cultural identity? All of us are shaped by the cultures we interact with and the cultural backgrounds and ethnicities that are part of our heritage. Take a dynamic approach to the study of culture and health care relationships. Dr. Marilyn A. Ray shows us how cultures influence one another through inter-cultural relationships, technology, globalization, and mass communication, and how these influences directly shape our cultural identities in today’s world. She integrates theory, practice, and evidence of transcultural caring to show you how to apply transcultural awareness to your clinical decision making. Go beyond common stereotypes using a framework that can positively impact the nurse-patient relationship and the decision-making process. You’ll learn how to deliver culturally competent care through the selection and application of transcultural assessment, planning and negotiation tools for interventions.

Nurses are key to building effective teams in primary care, but it has proved difficult to develop 'teams' in a service based on a small-business model. Current organisational arrangements fragment the different clinical professionals into tribes who have different employers and managers. This book brings together the work of pioneers in the field, to provide models for the future. As the need to define the primary care team becomes more urgent, this book is essential reading for all nursing professionals in primary care, nursing management, general practitioners, and primary care leaders at health authorities and Primary Care Organisations. 'The authors present an understanding of the context within which change is taking place, the elements to be addressed in the change process and a challenge for the future direction and pace of change.' From the Foreword by Marion Bull, Chief Nursing Officer, Welsh Office

Examines research developments and problems in modern health care and the role of the hospitals and related health agencies

The health care system in Malaysia has undergone a fundamental transformation over the last two decades. This book examines this transformation and explores the pressing issues it faces today. It includes coverage of: the evolution of the system since independence, from the colonial legacy of national provision bequeathed from the British to the impact of the global ideological shift against statism in the 1980s considers the responses of the Malaysian state and government policy issues such as equity of provision, women's access to health care, HIV-AIDS health care, care for the elderly. The book offers a detailed examination of the changing face of health care in Malaysia, and its impact on Malaysian citizens, users and society.

Based on original research and analysis by a group of health policy experts and economists from across the world, this book analyzes the causes and consequences of the expanding global and local commercialization of health care. It argues for the necessity and possibility of effective policy responses to develop good quality, universally inclusive health systems worldwide. The book aims to contribute to a shift in the international 'common sense' in health policy towards a more humane, inclusive, egalitarian, and ethical framework for policy formulation.