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Strategic planning in hospitals in two Australian states: an exploratory study of its practice using planning documentation.

Hospitals are under pressure to respond to new challenges and competition. Many hospitals have used strategic planning to respond to these environmental changes. This exploratory study examines the extent of strategic planning in hospitals in two Australian States, New South Wales and Victoria, using a sample survey. Based on planning documentation, the study indicated that 47% of the hospitals surveyed did not have a strategic or business plan. A significant difference was found in the comprehensiveness of the plans between the two States. Plans from Victorian hospitals had more documented evidence of external/internal analysis, competitor orientation and customer orientation compared with plans from New South Wales hospitals. The paper discusses the limitations of the study and directions for future research.

Data Collection↗

Integrated physiological and agronomic modelling of N capture and use within the plant.

Today farmers have several constraints to take into account in managing their crops: (i) competitiveness: productivity must be maintained or increased whereas inputs must be decreased, (ii) the environmental consequences of cultural practices: pesticide and fertilizer use must be decreased, and (iii) product quality must be improved and nitrogen nutrition is an important factor in harvest quality. These new constraints sometimes conflict: maximum yield is often obtained with large amounts of N, increasing the risks of N leaching. The determination of rates and dates for nitrogen application must become more precise in this context. Tools are required for the forecasting of crop requirements, the diagnosis of N deficiencies during the crop cycle and breeding of new adapted varieties. Models and diagnosis indicators have been developed to meet these needs, but those relating to nitrogen are often based on empirical relationships. Moreover, the available models and indicators often fail to account for cultivar-specific responses. The improvement of agronomic tools and the breeding of new varieties adapted to new cropping systems should be based on a thorough understanding of the key metabolic processes involved, and the relative contributions of these processes to yield determination in conditions of fluctuating N supply. For both purposes, more information is required about plant and crop N economy. In this paper, the way in which N absorption and use within the plant and crop, plant responses to deficiencies and excesses of nitrogen are taken into account in major agronomic models is described first. The level of sophistication of the modules comprising these models depends on operational objectives. Secondly, the ways in which the most recent molecular plant physiology findings can, and indeed should, be integrated into models at the crop and crop cycle levels are described. The potential value of this approach for improving current agronomic models and diagnostic tools, and for breeding more efficient varieties is also discussed.

Agriculture↗

Limiting solidarity in the Netherlands: a two-tier system on the way.

Health care policy in the Netherlands has long been guided by the values of solidarity and equality. As a result of several forces, particularly the scarcity of resources, the retreat of the Welfare State and the introduction of market forces in health care, both values are increasingly under strain. Next to solidarity and equality, freedom of choice and financial responsibility are playing an important role in Dutch health care. Consequently, there is a growing division in Dutch health care between two tiers, one basic tier giving access to a basic package of services and a luxury tier giving access to a higher quality of care and to services not included in the basic package. The main thesis of the article is that a two-tier system is morally justified on the condition that the basic tier is universally accessible and is based on the value of humanitarian solidarity.

Advisory Committees↗

Enhancing the training of internal medicine residents at Stanford by establishing a model group practice and raising its clinical educators' status.

The education of residents is shifting to the ambulatory care setting. In addition, there is a growing trend toward managed care and increasing competition for patients to be served by "real-world" practices. The authors describe the formation and operation of a program that was established in 1981 at the Stanford University School of Medicine to respond to these changes: the Stanford Medical Group (SMG), a model group practice in internal medicine that operates within the academic medical center. Because raising the status of the clinician-educator faculty was a critical issue for the SMG, the authors also describe the Medical Center Professoriate, a separate faculty track created in 1989 to recognize and reward Stanford's clinician-educators. The authors conclude that the SMG has succeeded in its training and patient care goals and has weathered the great changes in the health care environment that have taken place since 1981. They also report that the separate faculty track is serving its purpose well. They hope that educators and program directors at other academic medical centers may find the descriptions of the SMG and the professoriate useful in solving similar problems.

California↗

Hospital market share: the declining share of small players in the market.

Analysis of a set of isolated hospital markets reveals that low-market-share hospitals have experienced a consistent decline in their market share for the last five years. The challenges presented by such a decline in market share are compounded by the overall decline in the total market (in terms of number of hospital discharges) for the markets studied. It is suggested that significant strategy changes may be required if low-market-share hospitals are to survive.

Catchment Area, Health↗

The strategic behavior of U.S. rural hospitals: a longitudinal and path model examination.

This article explores the relationships among rural hospital strategic behavior (market power and cost control strategies), environmental and organizational characteristics, and the influence these have on the financial performance of rural hospitals in the United States. The study finds that only market power strategies and organizational characteristics (ownership and size) exhibit significant impacts on rural hospital financial performance.

Causality↗

Developing a registered nurse performance appraisal tool.

Hospital mergers are common events, producing highly complex corporate structures that allow the member hospitals to position themselves more competitively in a managed-care environment. Associated with this growing merger trend is the practice of performance-based employee compensation that links both individual and team efforts directly with the business strategies of the newly formed system. A unique challenge of initiating performance-based compensation for nurses is defining and quantifying the important aspects of nursing practice so that differentiation between performance levels can be identified. When highly individualized nursing cultures meet to create a performance appraisal tool, this challenge is accentuated. The authors describe the development of a performance appraisal tool for registered nurses by a newly merged healthcare system.

Clinical Competence↗

U.S. intelligence system: model for corporate chiefs?

A fully dedicated intelligence support function for senior management is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Companies can enhance their intelligence capabilities by using the government model as a rough blueprint to structure such a program.

Administrative Personnel↗

A relational approach to measuring competition among hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To present a new, relational approach to measuring competition in hospital markers and to compare this relational approach with alternative methods of measuring competition. DATA SOURCES: The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development patient discharge abstracts and financial disclosure files for 1991. STUDY DESIGN: Patient discharge abstracts for an entire year were used to derive patient flows, which were combined to calculate the extent of overlap in patient pools for each pair of hospitals. This produces a cross-sectional measure of market competition among hospitals. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The relational approach produces measures of competition between each and every pair of hospitals in the study sample, allowing us to examine a much more "local" as well as dyadic effect of competition. Preliminary analyses show the following: (1) Hospital markets are smaller than thought. (2) For-profit hospitals received considerably more competition from their neighbors than either nonprofit or government hospitals. (3) The size of a hospital does not matter in the amount of competition received, but the larger hospitals generated significantly more competition than smaller ones. Comparisons of this method to the other methods show considerable differences in identifying competitors, indicating that these methods are not as comparable as previously thought. CONCLUSION: The relational approach measures competition in a more detailed way and allows researchers to conduct more fine-grained analyses of market competition. This approach allows one to model market structure in a manner that goes far beyond the traditional categories of monopoly oligopoly, and perfect competition. It also opens up an entirely new range of analytic possibilities in examining the effect of competition on hospital perfomance, price of medical care, changes in the market, technology acquisition, and many other phenomena in the health care field.

Analysis of Variance↗

Labetalol (AH5158), a competitive alpha- and beta-receptor blocking drug, in the management of hypertension.

The effects of intravenous labetalol, a drug with both alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptor blocking actions, have been studied in 20 severely hypertensive patients. There was a prompt and sustained fall in arterial pressure; severe hypotension did not occur in recumbent patients but postural hypotension was common. Pulse rate was consistently reduced, but bradycardia was not a problem. Significant and correlated falls in plasma angiotensin II and aldosterone were seen. In a direct comparison with intravenous propranolol, labetalol was less effective in lowering plasma angiotensin II, but more effective in reducing blood pressure. Oral labetalol provided good control of blood pressure and other features in two patients with phaeochromocytoma. Intravenous labetalol was similarly effective in controlling a hypertensive crisis following clonidine withdrawal.

Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists↗

US health care: a look ahead to 2025.

The chapter begins with a reminder that forecasting changes in the health care sector a quarter to a third of a century in the future is likely to be a losing effort, based on past experience. It next considers changing organization and financing and questions that managed care and market competition will be the key forces introducing change. The author looks forward to the passage of universal health insurance coverage for essential care by early in the new century, with patients having to pay for more choice and more quality. The analysis next focuses on the physician supply and points to three challenges: how to moderate the numbers being trained; whether to reconsider the conventional wisdom of training more generalists; and how to support more resources for the National Health Service Corps to improve coverage in underserved areas. The author predicts the restructuring of acute care hospitals, with a marked reduction of in-patient beds, and that leading-edge research-oriented academic health centers should be able to remain out in front. There are also potential gains in health status from prevention and molecular medicine in a nation where chronic disease will dominate.

Delivery of Health Care↗