Anthony Kovner

Slowing the rate of growth of health spending is as critical a goal at the state level as it is at the national level. Philanthropy can hardly address this issue alone, yet it has an obligation to take on big and seemingly intractable problems. The New York State Health Foundation is committed to stimulating innovative and replicable approaches to bending the cost curve.

This article describes how the foundation recently awarded six grants to support efforts related to payment reform, hospital re-admissions, medical malpractice reform, palliative care, and the quantification of other cost containment approaches that could be pursued atthe state level.

Too often in the fast-moving healthcare field, decision makers rely primarily on what has worked before. Evidence-Based Management in Healthcare explains how healthcare leaders can move from making educated guesses to using the best available information to make decisions.

How do we understand and also assess the health care of America? Where is health care provided? What are the characteristics of those institutions which provide it? Over the short term, how are changes in health care provisions affecting the health of the population, the cost of care, and access to care? Health Care Delivery in the United States, 8 th Edition discusses these and other core issues in the field. Under the editorship of Dr. Kovner and with the addition of Dr. James Knickman, Senior VP of Evaluation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, leading thinkers and practitioners in the field examine how medical knowledge creates new healthcare services. Emerging and recurrent issues from wide perspectives of health policy and public health are also discussed. With an easy to understand format and a focus on the major core challenges of the delivery of health care, this is the textbook of choice for course work in health care, the handbook for administrators and policy makers, and the standard for in-service training programs.

More and more, healthcare providers are committing to evidenced-based clinical practice as a rational way to deliver care. Rather than make decisions anecdotally, clinicians find that the addition of research provides statistical evidence for their decisions, and thus should result in better, more consistent care. But, what about management decisions? Shouldn't evidence also be sought by hospital executives before making strategic decisions that will affect their organizations? Do not these decisions also affect the quality and safety of patient care? And if so, what is preventing executives from using such evidence before making these decisions? This issue of Frontiers explores these questions from both the research and practitioner points of view. In the feature article, "Evidence-Based Management Reconsidered," Anthony Kovner, PhD (professor of health policy and management at New York University), and Thomas Rundall, PhD (professor of organized health systems at University of California-Berkeley), make the case for why evidence-based health services management (EBHSM) can and should be used. Kovner and Rundall suggest that EBHSM can be applied to core business transactions, as well as to operational and strategic management, and they elaborate on a five-step process for making that happen. Acknowledging that there is little use of the EBHSM approach in the field today, the authors recommend strategies to facilitate greater use of this model.

The three commentaries explore the issues raised in the above articles. All of the authors agree that evidence-based management is an idea whose time has come. From all the "evidence," it has become clear that more often than not clinical errors occur as a result of a system failure-management-type decisions made without the proper knowledge and information. So, what will it take to get EBHSM implemented throughout healthcare? Hopefully, some of the ideas and strategies presented in this issue will get us closer to that goal.

Managers of a healthcare organization have numerous demands on their time, their skills, their knowledge, and their budgets. They are responsible for adapting to change, managing their office, making effective decisions, among countless other tasks. This text-newly revised to include readings, commentary, and cases-offers a bridge from management theory to the actual world of healthcare management that will help your students learn the role of manager in a healthcare organization.

Throughout its past editions, Health Services Management has featured the best literature on health services management to help learners understand the role of the manager, organizational design and control, the blending of organization and health professionals, change (adaptation), and responsiveness (accountability). This new edition continues that effort, and features new readings and classroom-tested cases.

The cases take place in a variety of organizations, including a faculty practice, a neighborhood health center, a small rural hospital, an HMO, as well as a variety of other settings. This book will prepare your future managers for the multitude of healthcare settings they could face in their careers.

Highlights the "Agenda Setting for Health Care Management Research," conference held in New York City on January 23-24, 2003. Generating research funding; Barriers to using management research; Overcoming barriers to funding.

How do we understand and also assess the health care of America? Where is health care provided? What are the characteristics of those institutions which provide it? Over the short term, how are changes in health care provisions affecting the health of the population, the cost of care and access to care? These core questions regarding our health policy are answered in this text.

Focuses on the importance of adequate management information for the performance of hospital boards in the United States. Responsibilities of board members in healthcare organizations; Adaptation of organization mission and strategy; Key recommendations to board members and managers.

This book of updated cases emphasizes a manager's need for skills in strategy, operations, and relations. To aid both professors and students, the cases are divided into the same categories as are used in Health Services Management: Readings and Commentary, Seventh Edition: role of the manager, control, organizational design, professional integration, adaptation, and accountability. All of the cases have been tested in the classroom.

Explores approaches in improving the effectiveness of nonprofit hospitals' boards of trustees as shown by the Alpha Health Care System and Beta Hospital. Kellogg project on effective governance; Factors influencing changes; Board assessment; Initiation of board development; Importance of time management; Chief executive officer's support to strengthen board effectiveness.

This case examines the expanding role of managed care programs in improving health care for the poor while controlling runaway health care costs. The case asks what the commissioner of health in a large eastern state should do to effectively monitor Medicaid managed care programs in her state. The commissioner faces intense pressures for cost containment and strong, but not universal, support for the managed care solution to health care cost problems. The commissioner is herself concerned that the cost savings attributed to managed care may not be real and that the unintended effects on health care may be adverse. Her immediate challenge is to determine what kinds of data she should require service providers to submit to her agency so that she may effectively monitor managed care programs for health care quality, provide positive feedback to health care providers, and establish politically credible program oversight.