What patients want: the foundation of strategic management.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Thomas K Ross.
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The evolution of health care created a climate in which cost was subordinate to medical treatment. Current reimbursement constraints have increased the need for providers to be cost conscious, but they have discovered that current accounting practices do not provide the appropriate information to determine the cost of service or make decisions. This article argues that activity-based costing (ABC) can bridge the gap between the medical and financial communities and provide a foundation for performance improvement.
Statistical process control (SPC) charts can be applied to a wide number of health care applications, yet widespread use has not occurred. The greatest obstacle preventing wider use is the lack of quality management training that health care workers receive. The technical nature of the SPC guarantees that without explicit instruction this technique will not come into widespread use. Reviews of health care quality management texts inform the reader that SPC charts should be used to improve delivery processes and outcomes often without discussing how they are created. Conversely, medical research frequently reports the improved outcomes achieved after analyzing SPC charts. This article is targeted between these 2 positions: it reviews the SPC technique and presents a tool and data so readers can construct SPC charts. After tackling the case, it is hoped that the readers will collect their own data and apply the same technique to improve processes in their own organization.