The control of health care costs continues to be the primary goal of managed care. Double digit inflation in the health care sector continues to be problematic; although society as a whole has not declared what fraction of economic productivity is properly applied to health care. No student of the subject can help but be impressed by the circumstantial evidence that suggests that society is beg...

Health sector organisations are undergoing a period of fundamental change. One set of changes is about increasing the capacity of the system to provide integrated client care. This paper discusses the practices that community health care workers have used to approach some basic issues of service integration. Although the discussion is about practices in community health, the issues are importan...

The declining trend in the maternal mortality rate (MMR) from the 1930s to the late 1990s resulted from several strategies implemented within and outside the health sector. Expansion of both field-based and institutional services through the past decades contributed to improved geographical access and provision of 'free' services improved economic access. These led to increased use of antenatal...

Because of the introduction of (regulated) market competition and self-regulation, strategy is becoming an important management field for health care organizations in many European countries. That is why health managers are introducing more and more strategic principles and tools. Especially the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)-analysis seems to be popular. However, hardly a...

this effort The roadmap to close the gap for vision was developed after extensive nationwide consultation and launched in 2012.1 It comprises 42 recommendations that span a whole-of-system approach to eliminate disparities in Indigenous eye health.2 These recommendations seek to increase accessibility and uptake of eye care services by Indigenous Australians; improve coordination between eye ca...

This paper has three primary objectives. First, it illustrates how economic transition from a centrally planned to market-oriented economy inevitably transforms the foundation of social protection policies. Economic reform affects China’s urban health care through two primary channels. 1) A large proportional decline in government revenue constrained state capacity to finance health care. This,...

Informal health care providers (IPs) comprise a significant component of health systems in developing nations. Yet little is known about the most basic characteristics of performance, cost, quality, utilization, and size of this sector. To address this gap we conducted a comprehensive literature review on the informal health care sector in developing countries. We searched for studies published...

Background Although the global growth of privatized health care services in the form of medical tourism appears to generate economic benefits, there is debate about medical tourism's impacts on health equity in countries that receive medical tourists. Studies of the processes of economic globalization in relation to social determinants of health suggest that medical tourism's impacts on health ...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of the universal health care policy from the perspective of Thai health care professionals. METHODS Semi-structured interviews with purposively selected health care professionals and key informants. RESULTS Health care professionals at public hospitals, particularly in rural areas, have experienced up to a doubling in the number of daily out-patients; man...