The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

An accessible new title focused on the science of healthcare delivery, from the acclaimed Understanding series A Doody’s Core Title for 2024! “... a landmark text that will shape the field and inform our dialog for years to come—-and it should be part of the required curriculum at medical and nursing schools around the world. Excellence in healthcare delivery science should become a core competency of the modern physician. Howell and Stevens have given medicine an important gift that may enable just that.” —Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, FACP; President and CEO, CareMore and Aspire Health; Co-Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief, Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation “You hold in your hands 35 years of investigation and learning, condensed into understandable principles and applications. It is a guidebook for effective care delivery leadership, practice, and success.” —Brent C. James, MD, MStat, Clinical Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine “...a must-read for anyone who, like me, is frustrated with the pace of our progress and is committed to creating a learning health system for all.” —Lisa Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP, President and CEO, AcademyHealth “... will quickly become the go-to, must-read resource for practitioners looking to have an impact as innovators in healthcare delivery.” —David H. Roberts, MD, Steven P. Simcox, Patrick A. Clifford, and James H. Higby Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Today’s healthcare system is profoundly complicated, but we persist in trying to roll out breakthroughs as if the healthcare system were still just the straightforward “physician’s workshop” of the early 20th century. Only rarely do we employ research-quality analytics to assess how well our care delivery innovations really work in the practice. And shockingly, the US healthcare delivery system spends only 0.1% of revenue on R&D in how we actually deliver care. Small wonder that we find ourselves faced with the current medical paradox: Treatments that seemed miraculous at the beginning of our lifetimes are routine today, but low-quality care and medical errors harm millions of people worldwide even as spiraling healthcare costs bankrupt an unacceptable number of American families every year. Healthcare delivery science bridges this gap between scientific research and complex, real-world healthcare delivery and operations. With its engaging, clinically relevant style, Understanding Healthcare Delivery Science is the perfect introduction to this emerging field. This reader-friendly text pairs a thorough discussion of commonly available healthcare improvement tools and top-tier research methods with numerous case studies that put the content into a clinically relevant framework, making this text a valuable tool for administrators, researchers, and clinicians alike.

Essential Surgery is part of a nine volume series for Disease Control Priorities which focuses on health interventions intended to reduce morbidity and mortality. The Essential Surgery volume focuses on four key aspects including global financial responsibility, emergency procedures, essential services organization and cost analysis.

This book is dedicated to improving healthcare through reducing delays experienced by patients. With an interdisciplinary approach, this new edition, divided into five sections, begins by examining healthcare as an integrated system. Chapter 1 provides a hierarchical model of healthcare, rising from departments, to centers, regions and the “macro system.” A new chapter demonstrates how to use simulation to assess the interaction of system components to achieve performance goals, and Chapter 3 provides hands-on methods for developing process models to identify and remove bottlenecks, and for developing facility plans. Section 2 addresses crowding and the consequences of delay. Two new chapters (4 and 5) focus on delays in emergency departments, and Chapter 6 then examines medical outcomes that result from waits for surgeries. Section 3 concentrates on management of demand. Chapter 7 presents breakthrough strategies that use real-time monitoring systems for continuous improvement. Chapter 8 looks at the patient appointment system, particularly through the approach of advanced access. Chapter 9 concentrates on managing waiting lists for surgeries, and Chapter 10 examines triage outside of emergency departments, with a focus on allied health programs Section 4 offers analytical tools and models to support analysis of patient flows. Chapter 11 offers techniques for scheduling staff to match patterns in patient demand. Chapter 12 surveys the literature on simulation modeling, which is widely used for both healthcare design and process improvement. Chapter 13 is new and demonstrates the use of process mapping to represent a complex regional trauma system. Chapter 14 provides methods for forecasting demand for healthcare on a region-wide basis. Chapter 15 presents queueing theory as a method for modeling waits in healthcare, and Chapter 16 focuses on rapid delivery of medication in the event of a catastrophic event. Section 5 focuses on achieving change. Chapter 17 provides a diagnostic for assessing the state of a hospital and using the state assessment to select improvement strategies. Chapter 18 demonstrates the importance of optimizing care as patients transition from one care setting to the next. Chapter 19 is new and shows how to implement programs that improve patient satisfaction while also improving flow. Chapter 20 illustrates how to evaluate the overall portfolio of patient diagnostic groups to guide system changes, and Chapter 21 provides project management tools to guide the execution of patient flow projects.

An invaluable resource for surgeons, surgical leaders, and health system administrators at all levels, Healthcare Delivery in Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice provides unique, expert coverage of common challenges in the delivery of surgical care. Editor Justin B. Dimick, MD, MPH, Chair of the University of Michigan’s Department of Surgery, leads an outstanding editorial team from the UM Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy who provide clear guidance on the strategy and operations of delivering optimal surgical care. Using a case-based approach, authors consider the underlying principles and existing evidence followed by real-world practical solutions.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

In response to a request by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Institute of Medicine proposed a study to examine definitions of serious or complex medical conditions and related issues. A seven-member committee was appointed to address these issues. Throughout the course of this study, the committee has been aware of the fact that the topic addressed by this report concerns one of the most critical issues confronting HCFA, health care plans and providers, and patients today. The Medicare+Choice regulations focus on the most vulnerable populations in need of medical care and other services-those with serious or complex medical conditions. Caring for these highly vulnerable populations poses a number of challenges. The committee believes, however, that the current state of clinical and research literature does not adequately address all of the challenges and issues relevant to the identification and care of these patients.

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare is more than a comprehensive introduction to artificial intelligence as a tool in the generation and analysis of healthcare data. The book is split into two sections where the first section describes the current healthcare challenges and the rise of AI in this arena. The ten following chapters are written by specialists in each area, covering the whole healthcare ecosystem. First, the AI applications in drug design and drug development are presented followed by its applications in the field of cancer diagnostics, treatment and medical imaging. Subsequently, the application of AI in medical devices and surgery are covered as well as remote patient monitoring. Finally, the book dives into the topics of security, privacy, information sharing, health insurances and legal aspects of AI in healthcare. - Highlights different data techniques in healthcare data analysis, including machine learning and data mining - Illustrates different applications and challenges across the design, implementation and management of intelligent systems and healthcare data networks - Includes applications and case studies across all areas of AI in healthcare data

This edited volume captures and communicates the best thinking on how to improve healthcare by improving the delivery of services -- providing care when and where it is needed most -- through application of state-of-the-art scheduling systems. Over 12 chapters, the authors cover aspects of setting appointments, allocating healthcare resources, and planning to ensure that capacity matches needs for care. A central theme of the book is increasing healthcare efficiency so that both the cost of care is reduced and more patients have access to care. This can be accomplished through reduction of idle time, lessening the time needed to provide services and matching resources to the needs where they can have the greatest possible impact on health. Within their chapters, authors address: (1) Use of scheduling to improve healthcare efficiency. (2) Objectives, constraints and mathematical formulations. (3) Key methods and techniques for creating schedules. (4) Recent developments that improve the available problem solving methods. (5) Actual applications, demonstrating how the methods can be used. (6) Future directions in which the field of research is heading. Collectively, the chapters provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of models and methods for scheduling the delivery of patient care for all parts of the healthcare system. Chapter topics include setting appointments for ambulatory care and outpatient procedures, surgical scheduling, nurse scheduling, bed management and allocation, medical supply logistics and routing and scheduling for home healthcare.