Primeros pasos de la administración médica en el IMSS / First steps of medical administration at the IMSS

La creación de una organización tan grande como el Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) requirió de mucha planeación para lograr administrar todas las prestaciones que se brindan a la población. Siendo así una necesidad contar con personal de salud con conocimientos y experiencia en administración en servicios de salud. El presente manuscrito es un reconocimiento a los doctores Manuel Barquín Calderón, Antonio Ríos Vargas y Carlos Zamarripa Torres, pioneros y protagonistas reconocidos en la planeación y organización (administración) de los servicios médicos del IMSS entre 1945 y 1955, quienes además tuvieron iniciativas racionales y constructivas, cumpliendo con su deber. Por otro lado, el Instituto expuso y proyectó que las actividades médico-administrativas eran una tarea compleja, y que su práctica necesitaba conocimientos especializados que no podían dejarse al azahar, al empirismo, a la buena voluntad, a las creencias o a la imaginación no objetiva.

The creation of an institution as large as the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) required a lot of planning to manage all the benefits provided to the population. Thus, it is necessary to have health personnel with knowledge and experience in health services administration. This manuscript is an acknowledgment to doctors Manuel Barquín Calderón, Antonio Ríos Vargas and Carlos Zamarripa Torres, pioneers and recognized protagonists in the planning and organization (administration) of the IMSS medical services between 1945 and 1955, who also had rational initiatives and constructive, doing their duty. On the other hand, the Institute exposed and projected that medical-administrative activities were a complex task, and that its practice required specialized knowledge that could not be left to chance, empiricism, good will, beliefs or nonobjective imagination.

[Life and achievements of an hospital director: Enrico Ronzani]. / Ricordo di un direttore sanitario illuminato: Enrico Ronzani

The paper illustrates the life and the achievements of Enrico Ronzani, born in Padua and graduated in Medicine at the Bologna University. He directed the hospitals of Florence and the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, promoting its growth until it became the seat of the Medical School promoted by Prof Mangiagalli, and he himself became Full Professor of Hygiene. In such a position he taught Hygiene also to Architets and Engineers, built the new Institute of Hygiene and helped to design and build the new great Hospital of Niguarda. But, most of all, he was successful in designing, promoting and officializing the job of the Hospital Directors, which was subsequently recognized by the law; and, publishing a series of books on the role of the modern hospitals, he prefigured their position in a web of medical institutions to include also those devoted to pre- and post-hospital assistance to the population. Practically he foresaw what was realized many years later through the creation of the Italian National Health Service (Law 833 of 1978).

Historical roots of hospital centrism in China (1835-1949): A path dependence analysis.

Stronger primary care has been associated with important contributions to health system performance, yet countries struggle to resource it adequately, given competing demands from hospitals. Although historically China has originated influential models of primary health care, it has an enduring problem with hospital dominance in health service delivery. This paper is a historical analysis of the co-evolution of hospitals and primary care providers in China from 1835 (the year when the first hospital was built in mainland China) to 1949 (the year when the People's Republic of China was founded), which aims to shed light on approaches to primary care strengthening. We develop and use a path dependence analytic framework, specifying the critical juncture, conjuncture and post-juncture development of the institutions shaping the balance between hospitals and primary care providers in China. We find that China had historically formed the hospital-centric model involving four sets of regenerating and mutually reinforcing institutions: 1) financial resources were being disproportionally distributed to hospitals; 2) high-quality medical professionals were largely concentrated in hospitals; 3) large outpatient departments were incorporated in hospitals, which functioned as a first point of care for many patients; 4) hospitals answered primarily to the demand of the more privileged social group. The early institutionalization of a hospital-centric model of Western medicine in China from 1835 became resistant to change, and efforts to strengthen primary care eventually took a divergent low-cost and de-professionalized developmental path towards 1949. As China still has a hospital-centric health system seeded in the nineteenth century, these findings can inform the framing of contemporary options for primary care strengthening. Without addressing these deep regenerating causes using a whole-system approach, China is unlikely to achieve a primary care orientation for health system development.

Neurosurgery at Kasturba Medical College: Past, present and future.

Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal, is the oldest and one of the most reputed medical institutes in coastal Karnataka, catering to a population of over 4 million, spanning a stretch of over 350 kms along the southwest coast of India from Mangalore to Goa. The Department of Neurosurgery at KMC, established in 1968, continues to be the leading and most preferred referral center providing high quality neurosurgical services in this region. The article provides an insight into the origin of the department, its infancy and teething troubles, its continuous growth and landmark achievements over the years. This brief review also highlights the current area of focus and describes the plans for its future development.

The role of the Director Zmago Slokan in the development of Maribor General Hospital in the first period after the Second World War (1953-1970).

The author explores and explains the role of the director of Maribor General Hospital in the first period after Second World War. The period was problematic on account of the difficult economic situation and changes in the political system. On one hand the hospital suffered relatively large damage due to bombing attacks during the war and on the other it had to face numerous staffing problems, especially with a lack of physicians and trained nursing staff (from 1948 an executive order entered into force forbidding the nursing nuns from performing nursing care in hospitals). The change in the political system required the management of the hospital to be taken over by an individual who enjoyed the political, professional and economic trust of the then authorities. Based on his engagement during the Second World War, the director, Zmago Slokan, represented a form of guarantee for the political system of that time, which nevertheless wanted the quality-based, professional and economic progress of the hospital. Using his personal characteristics, professional medical and economic knowledge as well as political experience, he was able to manage different tendencies to continue the quality-based progress of the institution. Thus, he set a proper foundation for its development in the periods that followed, in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia as well as in the independent Republic of Slovenia (after 1991). The author discusses the role of the director in the hospital's progress chronologically.

[Hospital Panorama in Zamora at the middle of the XVIIIth Century]. / Panorama hospitalario de Zamora a mediados del siglo XVIII.

The XVIIIth century was an era of reforms in multiple fields, including healthcare. To advance in its study, the present article delves into the knowledge about the hospital network in the middle of said century within the territories which integrate the current province of Zamora. Accordingly, the type of establishment, its funding, organisation and operation are analysed. As a result, a panorama dotted with numerous rural refuges and some hospitals in the centre of certain built-up areas is drawn, dedicated, basically, to the reception and religious assistance of poor vagrants. Such establishments were funded, above all, by agricultural income and by census rents. They counted , moreover, on a notable, ecclesiastic presence.

Women Doctors and Lady Nurses: Class, Education, and the Professional Victorian Woman.

The lives of the first women doctors in Britain have been well studied by historians, as have the many debates about the right of women to train and practice as doctors. Yet the relationship between these women and their most obvious comparators and competitors-the newly professionalized hospital nurses-has not been explored. This article makes use of a wide range of sources to explore the ways in which the first lady doctors created "clear water" between themselves and the nurses with whom they worked and trained. In doing so, it reveals an identity that may seem at odds with some of the clichés of Victorian femininity, namely that of the intelligent and ambitious lady doctor.