General management in the NHS: three views from the trenches.

Views from three general managers focus respectively on the impact of the Griffiths changes after five years; how 'success' in general management may be evaluated; and the changing nature of central-local relationships. At district level, the job of DGM has changed much more than was expected and the demands have greatly increased. These developments have resulted in increased satisfaction for the general manager and a desire to achieve results. 'Success' in general management is an elusive concept. There are many perceptions of success. For general managers, success may be reduced to a struggle for survival. Ultimately, success needs to be extended beyond short-term goals and to be concerned with shaping the longer term future. Central-local relationships have, in many ways, changed little. The major criticism of the centre by the service remains much the same as before the Griffiths reforms-the lack of central leadership and direction. Regions are perceived as part of the centre by districts and units. There is much to be done to make central-local relationships more creative and supportive.     

The changing role of the primary care practitioner: clinical enterprise management and information technology

The Steeplechase Family Physicians Clinic, and Dr. Tom Landholt in particular, represent a prototype for enterprise primary care practice. The role transition heavily relies on the EMR and other technology as tools in addition to general management principles, processes, and tools that span the functions and staff of Steeplechase. He adapted principles that drive service delivery across industries to create the clinician enterprise manager role and life style. The role comprises a paradigm shift in primary care practice delivery and associated professional training which indicates potential for clinicians adapting to and adoption of enterprise health care delivery.     

建设与现代化相适应的医疗卫生事业

该文提出了浙江省卫生现代化的具体目标和指标，分析了实现卫生现代化还存在的一些制约因素，提出了分三步走的战略步骤和相应的九大措施。     

Kidney disease management in UK primary care: guidelines, incentives and information technology

The last few years have seen new developments to understand and tackle the significant public health issue posed by chronic kidney disease (CKD). Established renal disease currently consumes 2% of the UK National Health Service budget and predictions are that this figure will increase significantly due to the rising number of people requiring renal replacement therapy fuelled by the ageing population and the diabetes mellitus epidemic. This paper reviews the scale of CKD and discusses the new developments such as staging, referral guidelines and new Department of Health incentives brought about to improve awareness. The importance of Information Technology in assisting the management of renal disease is also outlined. We identify various types of intervention which might be used to do this: feedback in an educational context, the establishment of computerized decision support and enhancement of the patient journey. Many principles may be extended to the management of any chronic disease. While new developments are necessary to improve care, wider implementation is required to be able to see if improved outcomes are achieved.     

Dimensions of choice in the assessment and care management process: the views of older people, carers and care managers

The aim of promoting the maximum possible choice for service users and carers is - together with the goal of greater independence - central to recent community care policies. This paper sets out a typology of those key choices which users and carers are expected to be able to make within each stage of the assessment and care management process: choices about what services, when to receive them (i.e. at what times and for what duration) and from whom (i.e. which provider organization and which individual care worker). Drawing on interviews with 28 older service users, 20 informal carers and 22 care managers across four local authority areas in England, the paper goes on to describe the extent to which such choices - both at the strategic/macro and operation/micro level - have increased or decreased in practice. The evidence confirms that of other recent studies that the gap between the 'ideal' of user and carer involvement and the 'reality' of everyday practice is still considerable.     

More than technology and access: primary care patients' views on the use and non-use of health information in the Internet age

Over the past decade, there has been considerable interest in the transmission of health information made available though the Internet with increasing confidence being placed in the potential power of the Internet to transform communication, clinical practice and relationships with patients. Subsequent to the failure of a primary‐care‐based initiative designed to provide free assistance and access to health information via the Internet, a survey was conducted. Findings from this survey suggested that facilitating access to e‐information is necessary, but not in itself sufficient, to encourage current non‐users to start exploring the Internet. The qualitative study reported here was aimed at exploring the way in which people use and perceive the utility of Internet information for managing health and illness and engaging with the health service system. Data was gathered from two sources. Interviews and observations of a sample who had used a free primary‐care‐based Internet service (n = 5) and interviews with a sample drawn from a survey of patient attitudes to using the Internet for health information (n = 12). The less‐considered aspects of access and the use of e‐information for health matters related to the varied existing relationships respondents had to computers, health information and health professionals. One of the main reasons why some respondents do not use the Internet to access health information is related to a lack of perceived utility and pertinence of such information for managing their healthcare. The optimal and equitable use of the Internet as a means of complimenting health‐service utilisation will not emerge merely from increasing access to e‐information. The potential for narrowing or increasing inequality between the information rich and poor needs to be viewed in a broader psychosocial context. The latter includes the nature of existing relationships which people have with the health service and the value that people place on their own capacity to make use of information in managing their healthcare.     

Information services for primary care: the organizational culture of general practice and the information needs of partnerships and primary care groups

In a primary-care led National Health Service it is imperative for librarians not only to develop user-centred services for health professionals based in the community but also to facilitate information management within Primary Care Groups. In this article recent research in the field is discussed, and challenges intrinsic to delivering information services to primary care are identified. Drawing on the experience of one Practice Librarian in the Aylesbury area, the importance of organizational culture is considered, along with its implications for making successful approaches to partnerships. Five factors that motivated these practices to contract the services of an independent librarian are identified. The information needs of Primary Care Groups are discussed and the essential characteristics of future service provision are noted.     

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.     

From policy to reality: clinical managers' views of the organizational challenges of primary care reform in Portugal

The primary healthcare reform in Portugal is based on the development of a new management model and clinical governance framework. The objective is to strengthen primary healthcare services to reduce the inappropriate utilization of secondary and emergency services and to make efficiency gains and to better control costs. New interventions include the introduction of a system of production‐based incentives for family health units. This paper presents an initial assessment of the implementation of the new policies and tries to explain the gap between its expected results and what was observed in the field 5 years later. We used a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis conducted in 12 regions, to collect the perceptions of members of Clinical Councils of Health Centers Groups, responsible for the implementation of the reform. The analysis looked at the dimensions of coverage, productivity, technical quality, and service quality. It identifies weaknesses in human resources management (shortages, incentives, team management) and lack of support from central and regional management. There is a perceived gap between the framework for reform as defined by law and the support made available for its implementation, leading to tensions between decision makers, managers, and health professionals. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influencing prescribing in English primary care: the views of primary care organisations

OBJECTIVE: The rapid rise of prescribing expenditure is a concern in many industrialised countries and methods to manage medicines are widely employed. The purpose of this study was to identify the approaches to improve primary care prescribing by primary care organisations (PCOs) in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. METHODS: A questionnaire (Management of Medicines, MANMED) was mailed to prescribing advisers and prescribing leads in 332 PCOs. RESULTS: A response rate of 66% (220/332) was achieved. Most PCOs report the improvement of the quality of prescribing as their top priority, followed by budget adherence at both practice and PCO levels. Prescribing advisers typically offer several forms of support: practice visits, prescribing reviews, indicators of prescribing, prescribing newsletters, hands-on support, seminars and local formularies. PCOs are pursuing a wide range of prescribing initiatives, covering, on average, seven different therapeutic areas. National targets are the main driver for prescribing initiatives but other key influences include inappropriate prescribing and clinical governance. Although cost considerations are important, improving the quality of prescribing is perceived as the overriding principle on which PCO prescribing strategy is based. Multifaceted prescribing support is widespread and national targets are the largest single factor influencing choice of therapeutic area for prescribing initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: Diversity in approaches presents the opportunity to improve the evidence base for medicines management. Not only could such research inform PCOs in their central aim of improving the quality of prescribing within the NHS, but it may also offer insights of relevance to other countries if the influence of process and context upon the effectiveness of medicines management is systematically explored.     

The 'new genetics' and primary care: GPs' views on their role and their educational needs.

BACKGROUND: Given the limited specialist resources available to cope with the rising demand for genetic services, it has been proposed that at least some of these services are provided by primary care in the future. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore GPs' attitudes towards new developments in genetics, to establish the role they envisage for primary care and to clearly define the education, information and training needed to support them in this role. METHODS: We carried out a qualitative study with GPs using four focus groups (26 GPs) and 15 individual semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: GPs perceive genetics as an important and increasingly relevant topic for primary care. Views on the appropriate level of involvement for primary care are mixed. GPs currently lack the relevant knowledge and skills to manage patients concerned about their family history. Other potential barriers to increasing primary care involvement included the time and costs involved, and ethical and legal concerns. CONCLUSION: If primary care is to become more involved in the delivery of genetic services in the future, then a major educational effort is required to raise awareness of the potential scope and limitations of new developments.     

Implementing information technology in the NHS: the role of narrative.

This paper analyses how groups use narratives in social processes of sensemaking and identity construction and in the pursuit and legitimation of their selfish interests. It does so through an examination of the narrativity of the experiences reported by the developers and users of an information technology (IT) system linking a haematology laboratory and a specialist haematology ward in a large acute hospital. The research contribution the paper makes is twofold. First, it illustrates the importance of group-level narratives in enacting organizational realities and especially in the social construction of IT systems. Second, it suggests that the narrative understanding of groups is a significant domain of organizational inquiry because it is through the spread and acceptance of their narratives that groups exercise their most profound influence.     

Assessing local health needs in primary care: understanding and experience in three English districts.

BACKGROUND: Assessing the health needs of a local population has been promoted as a key component in effective targeting of healthcare services and quality improvement. The understanding and experience of assessing health needs in general practice were investigated in three English districts. AIM: To identify the issues surrounding the potential for assessing health needs in primary care. METHOD: Postal survey of 347 general practices in three health authorities. Telephone interviews with a random stratified sample of 35 general practitioners. RESULTS: Although most practices identified assessing health needs as important, it is clear that this identification was typically based on an understanding of assessing needs as primarily focused on individual patient care, based on clinical priorities and involving practice held data. Most practices had not undertaken local consultation, whatever their understanding of assessing health needs. The few practices which had completed population oriented, proactive assessment of needs considered it to have led to tangible improvements in clinical or practice management. Overall, there was apparent confusion over the nature and purpose of assessing needs, although the principled aims and objectives of a population oriented, proactive component to primary care were generally upheld. The need for additional resources and support was identified. In four out of the five cases where specifically population based assessment of health needs had been undertaken, the local public health department had been involved. CONCLUSION: The value of the concept of assessing health needs in primary care holds considerable uncertainty and ambivalence. The findings from this study show that any attempts to promote assessing needs into primary care which focus either primarily or exclusively on the provision of "education" are unduly simplistic. More fundamental questions about the perceived relevance and opportunities for assessing health needs should be considered if primary care groups are to meet future commissioning challenges.