John R, Reynolds, the President and CEO of the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), a 142 bed orthopedic specialty hospital in Manhattan, was facing a curious dilemma regarding both the future direction of his institution and the evolving nature of his role as Chief Executive of the Corporation. HSS had just completed, under Reynolds’ direction, a major consultative project with the British Nati...

The NHS Care Records Service (CRS) is a major goal of the National Health Service (NHS) Modernisation Programme. It will provide for 24-hour access by clinicians to electronic patient records and the integration of information from previously separate databases, reducing the 'seams' between primary and secondary care, between out-of-hours and ordinary working hours, and ultimately between healt...

Justice Department’s request for a rehearing. As of mid-September, it was not known whether Ashcroft will appeal to the Supreme Court. In 1997, before the second Oregon vote, the Court upheld laws in New York and Washington that prohibited physician-assisted suicide and unanimously ruled that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide. The Court, however, left the states free to legal...

T H E BRITISH W H I T E PAPER on a National Health Service was made public on February 17 . In it the Minister of Health and the Secretary of Sta te for Scotland recommend the establishment of a National Health Service "which will provide for everyone all the medical advice, t rea tment and care they may require." The proposals are offered a t this time for discussion in Par l iament and in the...

BACKGROUND The National Health Service (NHS) has invested substantially in recent years to reduce variations in health care for chronic conditions such as diabetes. We examined trends in the management of diabetes in England between socio-economic and ethnic groups from 1998 to 2004. METHODS Secondary analyses of Health Survey for England data comparing achievement of national treatment targe...

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is investing considerable resources in reducing patient waiting times for elective treatment. This paper describes the development of a waiting list model and its use in a simulation to assess management options. Simulation usually assumes that waiting is adequately described by simple queuing disciplines, typically first-in-first-out. However,...

Since its establishment in 1948, the history of the National Health Service (NHS) has been characterized by organisational turbulence and system reform. At the same time, progress in science, medicine and technology throughout the western world have revolutionized the delivery of healthcare. The NHS has become a much loved, if much critiqued, national treasure. It is against this backdrop that ...