Ensuring the safety of patients and personnel and improving quality have become important objectives for national health systems in developed and developing countries alike, in response to research highlighting poor quality, increasing patient expectations, and media reports. There is a general belief, s...
In the next twenty years, the European Union will gain 17 million people over age 65 – a 30% increase – and 5.5 million more people over age 80, a 39% increase. Disability in old age is frequent and not only lowers the quality of life of its victims, but strains society’s limited resources for assi...
Hospitals are a key component of the health
care system and are central to the process of
health system reform, but as institutions they
have received remarkably little attention from
policy-makers and researchers. They have
long been regarded as “a black box”’ whose
workings are impenetrable. But ...
There has been a dramatic upsurge of
entrepreneurialism in health care systems in
Europe, spurred by interests in better
efficiency and quality. The characteristics of
entrepreneurial behaviour include seeking
opportunity, promoting innovation, and
genuine accountability. However, experience
so far indic...
