Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Health Care Sector”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Appraising the financial reform in Bulgarian public health care sector: the Health Insurance Act of 1998.

The public health care services in Bulgaria were deteriorating, especially during the decade of transitional process. The method of health care finance was a major reason for the poor performance of the Bulgarian public health care sector. Bulgarian policy-makers decided that an insurance-based financial mechanism could help to rescue the failing public health care services. This paper explores the social benefits and the feasibility of the insurance-based finance in the Bulgarian public health care sector. The discussion in the paper implies that, in the current conditions of economic recession, the insurance-based health care finance can not be socially beneficial for Bulgaria. Moreover, the insurance implementation seams to be unfeasible due to a lack of sufficient financial resources.

Bulgaria↗
PubMed2006

Quality management standards for facility services in the Italian health care sector.

PURPOSE: Health care, one of the most dynamic sectors in Italy, is studied with a particular focus on outsourcing non-core activities such as facility management (FM) services. The project's goals are to define national standards to balance and control facility service evolution, and to drive FM services towards organisational excellence. The authors, in cooperation with a pool of facility service providers and hospitals managers, studied cleaning services--one of the most critical areas. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This article describes the research steps and findings following definition and publication of the Italian standard and its application to an international benchmarking process. The method chosen for developing the Italian standard was to merge technical, strategic and organisational aspects with the goal of standardising the contracting system, giving service providers the chance to improve efficiency and quality, while helping healthcare organisations gain from a better, more reliable and less expensive service. FINDINGS: The Italian standard not only improved services but also provided adequate control systems for outsourcing organisations. In this win-win context, it is hoped to continually drive FM services towards organisational excellence. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This study is specific to the Italian national healthcare system. However, the strategic dynamics described are common to many other contexts. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: A systematic method for improving hospital FM services is presented. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The authors believe that lessons learned from their Italian case study can be used to better understand and drive similar services in other countries or in other FM service outsourcing sectors.

Health Care Sector↗
PubMed1996

Implications of the development of managed health care in the South African private health care sector.

The South African private health care sector has been looking to managed health care (MHC) to control the unsustainable cost escalations of the last decade. This paper draws on experience of MHC in other countries, particularly the USA, to assess its potential for solving the private sector's difficulties. In addition, it looks at problems which may be associated with MHC in a South African setting. The conclusion reached is that MHC alone cannot be seen as a panacea for the private sector's financial problems, although it may produce a degree of saving and be part of a solution. It is argued that MHC per se seems unlikely to compromise equity, quality of care or the public health care sector, and that it may potentially promote national health policy objectives. However, if MHC's benefits are to be maximised and potential negative effects controlled, ongoing monitoring of MHC, coupled with an appropriate regulatory and incentive environment, will be required.

Cost Control↗
PubMed1999

Consolidation in the health care sector.

This article discusses trends in health care sector consolidations. Attention is given to the reasons behind consolidation efforts and consolidation failures and the potential impact of consolidations on physicians, patients, and the transformation of health care delivery.

Health Care Sector↗
PubMed2003

The private-public divide: impact of conflicting perceptions between the private and public health care sectors in India.

SETTING: India's private health care sector manages half the nation's tuberculosis (TB) patients, accounting for an estimated sixth of global TB cases. While several studies have demonstrated private physicians' dubious diagnosis and treatment styles and lack of cooperation with public physicians, very little is still known about the private sector. OBJECTIVES: Using a detailed questionnaire to randomly survey private and public practitioners in Ahmedebad, Gujarat, India, we quantified perceptions held by each sector. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of private and public physicians. RESULTS: Significant conflicts in perception were found regarding interpretation of general facts, attitudes towards each sector, and effectiveness and social implications of DOTS. We also found that such differences in perception were likely to result in mistrust, differing views on reform propositions, conflicting mindsets about social agendas, and unwillingness to cooperate. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that reconciliation is attainable by obtaining and distributing unbiased, evidence-based information and exposing physicians to both private and public health care sectors in a professional setting.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

China's health care sector in transition: resources, demand and reforms.

Economic development and reforms have had profound impacts on China's health care sector. As a result, the health care sector in China is in transition. This report reviews the major changes, and the possible policy response to these changes in China's health care sector. It discusses resource availability in the Chinese health sector, and analyses the trend of household demand for health care goods and services. This study also examines the trade and investment situations in China's health sector and investigates the major forces that are driving the transition in health care and comments on the potential policy responses.

China↗
PubMed1998

The managerial revolution in the U.S. health care sector: lessons from the U.S. economy.

The U.S. health care sector is following the path of the revitalized U.S. economy with the creation of focused health care factories that provide coordinated care primarily for high-cost chronic diseases, disabilities, and surgical procedures, and with increased response to the demands of hard-working, well-educated Americans for convenience and support. Everything-for-everybody vertically integrated systems and managed care organizations will be sorely tested by these efficient, consumer-friendly innovations. This managerial revolution will create substantial opportunities for important health care administration research.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMed1994

Determinants of union victory in the health care sector.

Union win rates in the health care sector (October 1988 to September 1992) were significantly higher in multiple union elections, small bargaining units, and non-AFL-CIO single union elections. The 1991 Supreme Court Decision (AHA v. NLRB) negatively affected union win rates in hospitals.

Certification↗
PubMed1987

Privatization and bidding in the health-care sector.

Public provision of health care, as under Medicare and Medicaid, traditionally "privatized" major production decisions. Providers of care, largely private physicians and hospitals (but also public hospitals), made significant decisions about public beneficiaries' access to care, the quality and quantity of individual services, and the prices to be paid. The result was high access and quality/quantity, but also high program spending, which has prompted a reassertion of public budgetary control. Newly activist program administration is using various mechanisms to promote economizing. Unable and unwilling to specify standards of public access or quality/quantity too overtly, administration instead seeks to squeeze prices--mainly through administrative price setting but also through competitive bidding and voucherlike arrangements. Under such new incentives, major choices that in many non-American systems would be public are here "reprivatized" to be resolved out of the limelight by beneficiaries, traditional providers, or new intermediaries like Competitive Medical Plans.

Competitive Bidding↗
PubMed1986

The changing locus of decision making in the health care sector.

In the 1970s, the health policy debate focused on whether government or the medical profession should control the health care system. This article asserts that that struggle between two forms of centralized control was both less promising and less consequential than the devolution of decision-making authority upon consumers and their agents that is occurring today and that seems likely to continue as competitive forces become stronger and opportunities for meaningful consumer choice increases. What we are witnessing is the simultaneous deprofessionalization and depoliticization of important decisions affecting health care, a decentralization and diversification of the system that is opening new possibilities for translating diverse consumer desires into provider performance. Although covering much familiar ground, this article links a variety of seemingly discrete issues under the sterility of the competition-versus-regulation debate and to show the historical and ethical significance of the major changes that are under way in the health care sector today.

Community Participation↗
PubMed2002

Co-operative bidding of SMEs in health care sector.

Tendering become an important process for customers in the health care sector to select products and services from the market for the lowest price, with the highest quality and with the shortest delivery time. The number of SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) delivering products or services for the health care sector is increasing, but they have usually limited capital and expertise to participate in tenders. The paper introduces a possible solution for this problem, when SMEs form special groups, so called Smart Bidding Organisations (SBO), to prepare a bid for the tender jointly. The SBO appears for the customer (tender issuer) as a single enterprise and the bidding procedure will be faster and less expensive in this way.

Competitive Bidding↗
PubMed2005

Contemporary specificities of labour in the health care sector: introductory notes for discussion.

BACKGROUND: This paper combines the literature on public health, on economics of health and on economics of technological innovation to discuss the peculiarities of labour in the health care sector. METHOD AND FRAMEWORK: The starting point is the investigation of the economic peculiarities of medical care. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: This investigation leads to the identification of the prevalence of non-market forms of medical care in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Furthermore, the health care system has a distinctive characteristic from other economic sectors: it is the intersection between social welfare and innovation systems. The relationship between technological innovation and cost in the health care sector is surveyed. Finally, the Brazilian case is discussed as an example of a developing country. CONCLUSION: The peculiarities of labour in the health care sector suggest the need to recognize the worth of sectoral labour and to cease to treat it separately. This process should take into account the rapid development of the health innovation system and one important consequence: the obsolescence of the acquired knowledge. One way to dignify labour is to implement continued education and training of health professions personnel.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A measure of the effects of competition in the U.S. health care sector during the 1980s.

For some years now, health planning and management efforts have been assigning greater importance to the values and preferences of patients as consumers of health care services. A key objective of this 'marketing orientation' has been to effect responsible change in the way health services are designed, priced, advertised, and delivered. Implementation of such a philosophy--inconceivable just a few years ago--was originally motivated by the emergence of competitive market forces in the hospital and health care sector. In the current paper, a perspective on the precursors and facilitating factors that gave rise to these forces is presented. With this perspective, the review of two relevant books, one published at the beginning of the 1980s and one towards the end of the decade, will serve as a measure of the large and increasing impact of competition in the U.S. health care sector during the 1980s.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed2003

[Psychotherapy in a tax-financed sectorized health care system--a happy ending or disaster for English patients?].

Compared to other European countries' health systems, the NHS is very different. Finance by taxes, standards set by frameworks and statutory bodies to monitor nationwide the outcome, are virtually unknown on the Continent. For the patients there are considerable differences in how they are referred to psychotherapy and receive their treatment based on guaranteed standards. Health professionals identified with the NHS have to cope with a plethora of government directives.

Cost Control↗
PubMed1998

Methods of evaluating dental care costs in the Swedish public dental health care sector.

Twenty-six Swedish dental health care clinics participating in the intervention study "Evaluation of caries preventive measures" have been analysed with focus on costs, with the aim of demonstrating techniques suitable for evaluating direct dental care costs and also finding out whether charges are acceptable as a proxy for real costs. Three different approaches to calculating unit costs are discussed: average treatment time cost and two methods of different allocation of overhead cost. Average treatment time cost shows treatment time cost regardless of who (dentist, dental hygienist or nurse) provides the dental care. The other two methods reflect both the differences of treatment costs depending on practitioners' skill level and competence (salary) and the methods of handling overhead cost allocation. Our conclusions are that the proposed methods seem useful for evaluating costs in cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis. The alternative to average treatment time cost or unit time cost depends on what data is available and the perspective of the analysis. This study also concludes that charges are not sufficient as an alternative to a more detailed cost evaluation, at least not in Swedish public dental health care, since charges do not cover costs.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2004

[Health care sector in TV news].

BACKGROUND: This paper documents how the main Norwegian TV news programme "Dagsrevyen" approaches the health care sector and discusses some effects its approach may have on public opinion. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data on 1116 programmes aired between 1996 and 2003 period were analysed. Stories were coded by place in the news sequence, subject, who were interviewed, and what kind of message (positive, neutral, negative) the stories were giving. RESULTS: During the first years of the period in question, Dagsrevyen almost daily brought stories from the health care sector, often among its top stories. In the later years, the coverage was cut by 50%. Stories on the workings of the health care services, their funding, and the treatment of patients dominated. Patients and professionals, particularly doctors, were the most frequently interviewed. About one in two of the stories had a negative message, one in four a positive message. Stories presented early on in the programme were most often negative; this tendency did, however, become weaker over time. INTERPRETATION: The number of stories from the health care sector is mainly influenced by competition from other media and by programming policies. The angle of presentation chosen, the topics and the messages correspond to the ideals of "storytelling with pictures", which TV newscasters adopted in the mid-1990s. Repetitive negative coverage of the health care system contributes to forming public opinion and policy. This type of news coverage represents a pressure towards a search for new policies.

Commerce↗