The Business of Health Care

The health care articles in this book, first published in the Journal of Innovative Managementover the past several years, showcase some valuable examples. They are assembled in this single volume for easy access.

Business is about achieving purpose. The business aspects of health care are about human relationships and the design, implementation, and improvement of systems of work to achieve individual and common purpose.

In a very important sense health and quality — personal and organisational — are about how we want to live; achieving it is what leading and managing are about.

Regardless of our profession or occupation in life, we all want to have a good quality of life, and that generally includes as much health as possible. Clearly when we are sick or injured we want caregivers, processes, and systems that are optimised to treat the disease or injury; but those are merely paths to restored health. We tolerate sick care processes when necessary but we simultaneously want health care to achieve improved quality of life. This book contains good examples of where this is being done.

Selected Contents include:

• Improving Patient Care in Hospitals

• Six Sigma in Health Care: A Road Less Travelled

• Process Design and Management

• Living & Breathing a Customer-Centred Culture

• Putting the Patient at the Core of a Healthcare Organisation

• From Incremental to Breakthrough Performance

• Chaos Theory and Creativity

• The Future of Medicine