Pharmaceutical care management: a modern approach to providing seamless and integrated health care.

Institutional pharmaceutical services have widely evolved over the past 20-30 years. Hospital pharmacy practice has changed from a profession concerned chiefly with the bulk preparation and distribution of drug products to one centred on ensuring optimal drug therapy. Whereas hospital pharmacists were charged with maintaining large drug stock on nursing units, many of them now provide individualized patient therapies. The practice of hospital pharmacy has therefore become one encompassing all aspects of drug therapy, from the procurement of drugs and drug delivery devices, their preparation and distribution, to their most appropriate selection and use for each patient. Hospital pharmacy services have traditionally had little involvement at the key stages in patients' hospital care. This leads to the conclusion that the model of clinical pharmacy practice adopted by many pharmacy department hospitals is no longer appropriate for the demands of today's health-care services. Reviews many new models proposed for clinical pharmacy practice including an integrated model for providing a pharmaceutical care management approach in the health-care system. This model is a response to the failures of traditional drug therapy. It is primarily an idea about how health professionals and patient should integrate their work to obtain outcomes important to patients and clinicians.     

The ecology of health care in Hong Kong

To better understand the distribution of resources and health care consumption patterns in different geo-ethnic and socio-economic settings, we sought to describe the patterns of illness, care-seeking behavior and health services utilization in Hong Kong compared to the US and UK. Data were derived from the 2002 Hong Kong Thematic Household Survey covering 31,762 non-institutional and institutional residents, representing 6,504,255 persons after applying population weights. Of 1000 individuals during a 1-month period, 567 reported symptoms, 512 of whom considered seeking health care. Four hundred and forty persons visited western allopathic medical practitioners, with 372 (84.5%) in primary care and 68 (15.5%) in specialty care. There were 54 visits to traditional Chinese medical practitioners and 16 emergency room episodes. Seven individuals were hospitalized in community hospitals and on average one in 1000 were admitted to a tertiary medical center. Ninety out of the 567 who experienced symptoms undertook self-management strategies, which included over-the-counter western allopathic medications (n=54) or traditional Chinese remedies (n=14) or both (n=2), dietary modification (n=1) and rest (n=15). We have mapped the ecology of health care in Hong Kong. Monthly prevalence estimates were remarkably similar to US figures for hospital-based events, whereas there was evidence of apparent, substantial "over-consumption" of ambulatory, community-based care. Our results also indicate that the local community's care-seeking orientation still very much favors western allopathic medicine over traditional Chinese therapy, at least for acute illness episodes.     

Global budgeting of hospitals in Hong Kong.

Policy-makers in industrialized countries face the dilemma of having to contain soaring hospital costs while resisting any reduction in the quality and quantity of hospital services. Among the many hospital financing systems, centralized control via global budgeting is advocated by some to be the most effective in containing hospital costs. Containing hospital costs, however, is but one aspect of the trade-off between cost containment and quality of care. The hospital financing system of Hong Kong provides some insights into the extent to which cost control can be achieved through global budgeting; and its impact on the accessibility of hospital care. The case of Hong Kong highlights three necessary conditions for effective cost control: (1) the payer must have a clear policy stance on overall public spending; (2) the payer must have a clear policy stance on the importance of hospital care relative to other goods and services; and (3) the payer must also have the will and ability to limit hospital spending within finalized global budgets. However, successful cost containment in Hong Kong affects the accessibility of hospital care. In a time of population growth and economic prosperity, new community needs seem to have preceded government plans and actions to build hospital facilities.     

Consumers' perceptions of health care: the case of Hong Kong

The health care industry in Hong Kong has undergone major changes in organization as well as philosophy of operation since the 1970s. During this period, the Hong Kong government has also experienced a political transition from colonial status to a special administrative region of Mainland China. Because of the economic downturn in East Asia, including Hong Kong, contraction of public spending has compelled the government to reconsider the alternatives for health care provision in Hong Kong. A number of multinational health care providers have entered this market and operate mainly in the private sector, including solely-owned clinics and alliances with existing hospitals. This paper provides an understanding of the evolution and development of the health care industry in Hong Kong and, on that basis, suggests elements of quality health care from the findings of a survey of patients.     

Economic development and the health care system in Hong Kong

This article describes parallel developments of the Hong Kong economy and its health care system. The purpose is to illustrate how the Hong Kong health system evolved in response to external and internal pressures generated by economic prosperity. The Hong Kong system illustrates the importance of clear policy making in the face of these pressures. In particular, issues of investment, financing and distribution of health services are examined in relation to hospital cost control and service accessibility. In the past, health care costs in Hong Kong have been controlled at the expense of limited accessibility of health services. At present, Hong Kong policy-makers are faced with the challenge of maintaining a sharp focus on cost control as they face pressure to expand and improve health care coverage for the citizens. So far they have responded by emphasizing management efficiency through reorganization. It remains to be seen whether this strategy can be successful without passing increased health care costs to the consumers.     

Health services reform and human resource management in Hong Kong public hospitals

This article discusses the empirical study of reform in the human resource management function in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority. It describes the prior management of the hospitals based on the civil service administration model before looking at management reform in general. From this research, the creative tensions between the centrifugal and centripetal forces in the pursuit of ‘effectiveness’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘economy’ are explored in terms of decentralization. A survey of line managers, in eleven Hospital Authority hospitals, revealed the progress of decentralization: a majority of respondents felt that, over the previous five years, managers at their level had been given greater responsibility for human resource management issues. In spite of the widespread perception of increased decentralization, however, it was recognized that there are limits to decentralization. It was the routine administration rather than the policy formulation and interpretation which had been decentralized, and hospitals continued to rely on the Hospital Authority Head of Office for guidance on policy interpretation. Several barriers to the effective decentralization of responsibility for human resource management were identified, including a lack of management skill, knowledge and time, the attitudes of some managers and the tight control of budget. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Problems of primary health care in a newly developed society: Reflections on the Hong Kong experience

Hong Kong has emerged as a newly developed society in Asia and its modern scientific health care system has had a substantial expansion. Recently, the rise of medical costs has made the health authority come to stress the development of PHC. This paper focusses on three major aspects of the PHC development in Hong Kong: (1) public health and preventive care; (2) food supply and nutrition; and (3) first-contact medical care and referral network.It is argued that in a newly developed society, the emphasis on developing both the quality and the quantity of PHC in the scientific biomedical stream is justifiable. However, at least two kinds of problems need to be taken into consideration, i.e. the prevalence of traditional beliefs and practices and the ever-rising demands of the public for health services.     

Patterns of health care utilization and health behaviors among street sex workers in Hong Kong

OBJECTIVE: To describe the current use of health services by the street-based female sex workers (FSWs) and to explore beliefs behind these health behaviors. STUDY SETTING: Community outreach approach in a few red-light districts in Hong Kong. STUDY DESIGN: A 30 min face-to-face interview was carried out in 89 women by direct approach and snowballing, followed by a focus group discussion drawn from the participants of the questionnaire. RESULTS: While these FSWs' perception of personal health was good, a considerable proportion suffered from illnesses but the consultation rate was a third of the mean rate of the general population in Hong Kong. Many street workers experienced difficulty in utilizing health service in Hong Kong and even when they did, it was mainly for acute problems. Affordable access to health public services was excluded and many found private services unaffordable due to the high price charged by the practitioners. It was common for these women to self-medicate, delay in seeking medical help, or travel back to China for treatment. CONCLUSION: The current empirical understanding of the health and health service utilization by sex workers is unbalanced. In order to reduce sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV among the street sex workers, it is essential to address the fundamental issue of health care access.     

From records to indicators: the management of health care information production in hospitals

Utilization of health care indicators in the monitoring of health system performance has become increasingly important in the last decades. The expansion of the public National Health System, Sistema Unico de Saúde/SUS, growth of the private health sector and implementation of specific types of health care regulation models stimulated the utilization of indicators in the evaluation of hospital care quality and performance and proposals of national indicator systems. This was not accompanied with a corresponding investment in the conditions in which the needed data and information are produced in health services. The objective of this article is to identify some of the necessary conditions for health care performance indicator quality in hospitals: a pervasive institutional culture favoring clinical, administrative and research information and adequate organization and administration of clinical registers, hospital statistics and hospital information systems. No ready made universal hospital information packages will be able to achieve this, and each institution has to develop the ability to incorporate and use, according to specific needs and contexts, capabilities and material and human resources that will turn information management into a dynamic process and part of hospital management in general.     

Auditing the health care enterprise. Evaluation research can improve strategic planning and implementation in hospitals

Financial audits that focus on the recent past have been criticized for not answering questions concerning whether or not the enterprise will survive and thrive during the next few years. Strategic management/marketing audits (SMMAs) are designed to respond to these concerns. In conducting an SMMA for a long-term care hospital, the authors found critical differences in the beliefs held by key executives and staff members regarding the strategic goals, planning, and actions of the hospital.