Healthcare is a competitive business in its own right. Global competition in healthcare adds yet another complex dimension to the success of a healthcare organization. Providing state of the art technology along with the manpower and management skills to bridge boundaries and cultures, confronts today’s healthcare organizations with challenges that, while on the surface may appear simple, may a...

OBJECTIVES Japan has a universal healthcare system, and this paper describes the reality of the healthcare services provided, as well as current issues with the system. METHODS Academic, government, and press reports on Japanese healthcare systems and healthcare guidelines were reviewed. RESULTS The universal healthcare system of Japan is considered internationally to be both low-cost and e...

All public systems look for the best organizational structure to funnel part of their national income into healthcare services. Appropriate policies may differ widely across country settings. Most healthcare systems fall under one of two broad categories, either Bismark or Beveridge systems. There is no simple ideal model for the organization of health services, but most healthcare systems that...

BACKGROUND The healthcare industry is characterized by intensive, never-ending change occurring on a multitude of fronts. Success in such tumultuous environments requires healthcare providers to be proficient in myriad areas, including the manner in which they organize and deliver services. Less efficient designs drain precious resources and hamper efforts to deliver the best care possible to p...

Communities of practice have been heralded as a powerful knowledge management tool, especially for geographically disparate workgroups. Research into knowledge management (KM) in healthcare organizations is a needed research focus, given that differences exist in knowledge and knowledge management processes between healthcare and other organization types. The research presented in this paper ex...

Creation of a high-reliability safety culture “is probably the most challenging work that a healthcare organization has to do,” says Ana Pujols McKee, MD, executive vice president and CMO for The Joint Commission. And as with any other fundamental change in healthcare, the hard work of accelerating development of a safety culture begins with senior leadership: “Without concerted and ongoing eff...

Healthcare fraud enforcement has increased exponentially over the past few years. Practice groups have seen increased enforcement specifically from the federal government. It has never been more important to ensure everyone in your organization understands the various compliance issues and the risks they present. This article highlights the top compliance issues to help your practice groups und...

To reduce injury and death caused by medical errors, healthcare organization must integrate information systems with clinical processes. This research in progress seeks to understand the adoption behaviors of healthcare professionals while developing a healthcare specific IT adoption model to help foster IT acceptance and clinical systems integration.