Synopses & Reviews
The Physician-Manager Alliance details an approach to creating a healthy health care organization built on a new dynamic for clinician-manager relations that ultimately may restore confidence in our health care system. The authors argue that the key to any health care organization's success is the partnership of managers and physicians working toward the common goal of providing patients with quality service. To achieve that And, the book shows how the alliance of managers and physicians can develop effective policies and procedures that will provide health care that is timely, considerate, technologically appropriate, and responsive to patient needs.The authors reveal how medicine is actually practiced in today's health care organizations and offer informed guidance for needed improvements. As an example, they outline a problem solving approach based on an open systems framework that allows for adaptability and flexibility in decision making that can be effectively applied to particular situations and individual health care organizations.The Physician-Manager Alliance addresses vital and timely topics such as linkages between providers in different specialties and organizations; patient, employee, and physician satisfaction; development of effective physician-manager collaboration; and much more.This book is written for managers and physicians willing to accept the challenge of meeting the high standards of care that Americans have a right to expect from their health care organizations.
Review
"The authors have written an important book, underscoring the necessity of cooperative and collaborative relationships between physicians and managers. Such partnerships of medicine and management, whose destinies are inextricably intertwined, are essential if organizations are to effectively and efficiently operate for the benefit of the people they serve." —Howard S. Zuckerman, professor, School of Health Administration and Policy, and director, Center for Health Management and Research, Arizona State College of Business
Synopsis
Shows how the clinician-manager partnership can develop effective policies and procedures that will provide health care that is timely, considerate, technologically appropriate, and responsive to patient needs.
Synopsis
In the Physician-Manager Alliance, the authors assert that the key to success for any health care organization is a strong partnership between managers and physicians who have the common goal of providing patients with high quality health care.They detail a strategy for fostering a new positive dynamic between clinicians and managers?and demonstrate how the alliance can implement effective policies and procedures to provide health care that is not only responsive to patients' needs, but also timely, considerate, and technologically appropriate.In addition, Davidson and McCollom examine the state of current health care practice, and offer informed guidance for needed improvements. In one example, they outline a problem-solving approach for more adaptable and flexible decision making that is effectively applied to many situations and organizations.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-248) and index.
About the Author
STEPHEN M. DAVIDSON is associate professor of health care management and management policy and former director of the graduate program in health care management at Boston University School of Management. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Medicaid Decisions: A Systematic Analysis of the Cost Problem (1980) and The Cost of Living Longer: National Health Insurance and the Elderly (1980). MARION MCCOLLOM is associate professor of organizational behavior at Boston University School of Management. She coedited Groups in Action: A New Perspective on Group Dynamics (1990). JANELLE HEINEKE is assistant professor of operations management at Boston University School of Management. She has over fifteen years of clinical health care experience, as well as ten years of health care industry management experience in hospitals and HMOs.
Table of Contents
1. The High Stakes of Change: The Need for Physician-Manager Alliances.
2. Our Growing DepAndence on Organizations: HMOs, PPOs, and Everything in Between.
3. The Health Care Customer in the New Marketplace.
4. Physicians and Managers: The Search for Common Ground.
5. Moving Toward the Healthy Health Care Organization: Identifying the Critical Challenges.
6. How Are We Doing? Measuring Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Satisfaction.
7. Understanding the Physician-Manager Relationship: Five Perspectives.
8. An Open Systems View: A Realistic Framework for the Health Care Organization.
9. The Problem-Solving Approach: Creating Collaboration Between Physicians and Managers.