Investigating the challenges and opportunities for medicines management in an NHS field hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Hospital admissions from COVID-19 initially increased rapidly within the UK. National Health Service (NHS) field hospitals are part of a capacity building response built at great scale and speed to respond to the anticipated increased demand the NHS faces during this time. NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham (NHB) is modelled to treat mild to moderate (non-critical care) COVID-19 disease, to provide step-down capacity for patients in recovery, or for palliating patients in the dying phase of their disease in the Midlands. Opportunities and challenges presented for optimal medicines management (MM) during the development of the NHB are investigated, and a framework developed to support future NHS field hospitals of this model. METHODS: A team, comprised of an associate medical director, trust chief pharmacist and senior pharmacists iteratively developed a framework to convert the large non-hospital setting into a functioning NHS field hospital with standardised MM processes adjusted appropriately to cope with operational constraints in the pandemic situation. NHB has, because of its repurposing, both challenges and advantages affecting MM that influence development of the framework. Throughout implementation, a 7-week period between announcement and opening, there was continuous evaluation, external stakeholder validation and peer review. RESULTS: The PESTLE model, a mechanism of analysis to identify elements of a project environment (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal and Economic), was applied to identify influencing factors and support detailed project planning. Compliance with medicines legislation was at the forefront of all MM process development for the NHB field hospital. Internal factors were identified by the core MM team, resulting in a workforce, education & training and clinical pharmacy MM plan. DISCUSSION: MM processes are extensive and integral to NHS field hospitals. The presented framework of influencing factors may support future NHS field hospital development. It is pertinent to have a broad team working approach to any large-scale project such as outlined here, and suggest the identified factors be used as a core framework for development of any future MM processes in NHS field hospitals.

Fundação pública de direito privado / Public foundation of private law

Muitas alternativas de gestão de unidades públicas de saúde têm sido discutidas com o objetivo de aumentar a eficiência destas e garantir melhorias no atendimento e serviços prestados à população em geral. Dentre os diversos modelos de gerência atualmente em voga, como opção à administração direta tem-se: Fundações Públicas de direito público e as de direito privado, Autarquia, Consórcio Público, Empresa Estatal, vínculos paraestatais e de colaboração, Organização Social (OS), Organização da Sociedade Civil de Interesse Público (OSCIP) e Fundação de Apoio.

Many alternatives for the management of public health units have been discussed with the objective of increasing their efficiency and ensuring improvements in care and services provided to the general population. Among the various management models currently in vogue, as an option for direct administration are: Public Foundations of public law and those of private law, Municipality, Public Consortium, State Company, parastate and collaborative links, Social Organization (OS), Civil Society Organization of Public Interest (OSCIP) and Support Foundation.

[Emergency overcrowding and hospital organization: Causes and solutions]. / La saturation de la structure des urgences et le rôle de l'organisation hospitalière : réflexions sur les causes et les solutions.

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a silent killer. Thus, several studies in different countries have described an increase in mortality, a decrease in the quality of care and prolonged hospital stays associated with ED overcrowding. Causes are multiple: input and in particular lack of access to lab test and imaging for general practitioners, throughput and unnecessary or time-consuming tasks, and output, in particular the availability of hospital beds for unscheduled patients. The main cause of overcrowding is waiting time for available beds in hospital wards, also known as boarding. Solutions to resolve the boarding problem are mostly organisational and require the cooperation of all department and administrative levels through efficient bed management. Elderly and polypathological patients wait longer time in ED. Internal Medicine, is the ideal specialty for these complex patients who require time for observation and evaluation. A strong partnership between the ED and the internal medicine department could help to reduce ED overcrowding by improving care pathways.

Reconsidering hospital EHR adoption at the dawn of HITECH: implications of the reported 9% adoption of a "basic" EHR.

OBJECTIVE: In 2009, a prominent national report stated that 9% of US hospitals had adopted a "basic" electronic health record (EHR) system. This statistic was widely cited and became a memetic anchor point for EHR adoption at the dawn of HITECH. However, its calculation relies on specific treatment of the data; alternative approaches may have led to a different sense of US hospitals' EHR adoption and different subsequent public policy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reanalyzed the 2008 American Heart Association Information Technology supplement and complementary sources to produce a range of estimates of EHR adoption. Estimates included the mean and median number of EHR functionalities adopted, figures derived from an item response theory-based approach, and alternative estimates from the published literature. We then plotted an alternative definition of national progress toward hospital EHR adoption from 2008 to 2018. RESULTS: By 2008, 73% of hospitals had begun the transition to an EHR, and the majority of hospitals had adopted at least 6 of the 10 functionalities of a basic system. In the aggregate, national progress toward basic EHR adoption was 58% complete, and, when accounting for measurement error, we estimate that 30% of hospitals may have adopted a basic EHR. DISCUSSION: The approach used to develop the 9% figure resulted in an estimate at the extreme lower bound of what could be derived from the available data and likely did not reflect hospitals' overall progress in EHR adoption. CONCLUSION: The memetic 9% figure shaped nationwide thinking and policy making about EHR adoption; alternative representations of the data may have led to different policy.

Positive Predictive Value of Administrative Data for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a postnatal withdrawal syndrome experienced by some infants with opioid exposure. Hospital administrative data are commonly used for research and surveillance but have not been validated for NAS. Our objectives for this study were to validate the diagnostic codes for NAS and to develop an algorithm to optimize identification. METHODS: Tennessee Medicaid claims from 2009 to 2011 (primary sample) and 2016 (secondary sample; post-International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-10-CM]) were obtained. Cases of NAS were identified by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code (2009-2011) 779.5 and ICD-10-CM code (2016) P96.1. Medical record review cases were then conducted by 2 physicians using a standardized algorithm, and positive predictive value (PPV) was calculated. Algorithms were developed for optimizing the identification of NAS in administrative data. RESULTS: In our primary sample of 112 029 mother-infant dyads, 950 potential NAS cases were identified from Medicaid claims data and reviewed. Among reviewed records, 863 were confirmed as having NAS (including 628 [66.1%] cases identified as NAS requiring pharmacotherapy, 224 [23.5%] as NAS not requiring pharmacotherapy, and 11 [1.2%] as iatrogenic NAS), and 87 (9.2%) did not meet clinical criteria for NAS. The PPV of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code for NAS in clinically confirmed NAS was 91% (95% confidence interval: 88.8%-92.5%). Similarly, the PPV for the ICD-10-CM code in the secondary sample was 98.2% (95% confidence interval: 95.4%-99.2%). Algorithms using elements from the Medicaid claims and from length of stay improved PPV. CONCLUSIONS: In a large population-based cohort of Medicaid participants, hospital administrative data had a high PPV in identifying cases of clinically diagnosed NAS.

[Increasing Complexity in Performance Delivery - Management Approach for Tertiary Care Centers]. / Komplexitätssteigerung in der Leistungserstellung ­ Managementansätze für ein Zentrumsspital.

Increasing Complexity in Performance Delivery - Management Approach for Tertiary Care Centers Abstract. General social trends such as individualization and female shift increase the complexity for management in both technical and system management in addition to the inherent development in the hospital industry such as subspecialization, ageing societies and multimorbidity. Reduction of complexity is therefore absolutely necessary in order to be able to manage in a patient-friendly way as a maximum care provider. Reducing complexity means resolving therapeutic conflicts. Essential tools for this are digitization, a comprehensive quality paradigm that includes patient experience, patient assessment of treatment outcomes, indication and service quality, and good management. The latter integrates the fragmentation of skills and knowledge of a subspecialized medicine through appropriate system design. This requires the appropriate functional strategies and a comprehensive process management competence that can transform the numerous interfaces into seams.

Relationship between lean practices, soft total quality management and innovation skills in Lebanese hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Lean practices are critical to eliminate waste and enhance the quality of healthcare services through different improvement approaches of total quality management (TQM). In particular, the soft side of TQM is used to develop the innovation skills of employees that are essential for the continuous improvement strategies of hospitals. AIM: The main objective was to study the relationship between lean practices, soft TQM and innovation skills in Lebanese hospitals. METHODS: A quantitative methodology was applied by surveying 352 employees from private and public hospitals in Lebanon. The primary collected data were valid and reliable when analysed by SPSS and AMOS software as a part of structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Lean practices significantly influenced the innovation skills; however, soft TQM did not mediate this relationship because it was not well implemented, especially at the level of people-based management and continuous improvement. CONCLUSION: This study has implications for healthcare practitioners to make greater efforts to implement lean practices and soft TQM. Future studies are suggested to highlight different challenges facing quality improvement in the Region.

Hybrid practices as a means to implement quality improvement: A comparative qualitative study in a Dutch and Swedish hospital.

BACKGROUND: Managers and scholars commonly perceive resistance from professionals as hampering the implementation of quality improvement (QI) and refer to the incompatibility of clinical and managerial approaches to QI as a reason. Yet a growing body of research indicates that, in practice, these two approaches rather blend into hybrid practices that embody different types of QI-related knowledge and values. This opens up a new perspective on implementation challenges that moves attention away from resistance against managerial QI toward difficulties for clinicians to draw together different types of knowledge and values within their clinical work. So far, little is known about how managers can support clinicians to generate hybrid QI practices. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to deepen our understanding of how managers can support the generation of hybrid practices that help clinicians to integrate QI into their everyday work. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: We draw on comparative qualitative research including 21 semistructured interviews, documentary analysis, and participant observation that we conducted in one Dutch and one Swedish hospital over a period of 8 months in 2011/2012. RESULTS: Hospital managers designed hybrid forums, tools, and professional roles in order to facilitate the integration of different QI practices, knowledge, and values. This integration generated new hybrid practices and an infrastructure for QI that has potential to support clinicians in their efforts to align different demands. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: New opportunities to implement QI emerge when we change the implementation problem from clinical resistance to the need of support for clinicians to develop hybrid QI practices. Hospital managers then have to intentionally organize for the generation of hybrid practices by designing, for example, hybrid forums, tools, and professional roles that integrate different knowledge and values in a nonhierarchical way.

Publicização da gestão hospitalar no SUS: reemergência das Organizações Sociais de Saúde / Publicization of hospital management in SUS: re-emergence of Health Social Organizations

Resumo O Estado da Bahia foi pioneiro na privatização da gestão hospitalar por meio de uma política de incentivo às Organizações Sociais de Saúde (OSS), sob o discurso da eficiência. A rapidez de penetração do setor privado na esfera pública, com alteração da noção de democracia e interesse público, tem sido globalmente observada. A análise da incorporação das OSS à gestão dos hospitais estaduais baianos, proposta por este estudo de caso, utilizou documentos disponíveis em sites de domínio público e entrevistas com gestores de hospitais "publicizados" e da Secretaria Estadual de Saúde da Bahia (Sesab). A interpretação dos resultados sob o filtro de categorias históricas e analítico-operacionais evidenciou a ascensão das terceirizações, a partir de 1996, e a incorporação das OSS à cena hospitalar baiana, a partir de 2005, pari passu com o afrouxamento do Conselho Estadual de Saúde e o avivamento do discurso de maior resolutividade das OSS, que seriam "quase como o Estado". Para afinar-se com o novo discurso governamental, empresas antes terceirizadas mudaram sua personalidade jurídica para OSS, demonstrando um processo de privatização disfarçada, no bojo de um governo que sustentou discurso contrário a essa prática, antagônica aos princípios de seguridade da saúde, expressos na Constituição Federal.

Abstract The state of Bahia has been a "pioneer" in privatization of hospital management through a policy of encouraging Health Social Organizations (OSS) under the discourse of greater efficiency. The rapidity as the private sector penetrates the public sphere and modifies the notion of democracy and public interest has been noted around the world. To analyze the process of OSS management in two cases, documents available in the public domain sites and interviews with the hospital and the Health Department of Bahia State (SESAB) management staff were used. A comparison between the data collected by different sources was supported by historical and operational-analytical categories which allowed its interpretation and showed the rise of outsourcings since 1996, and the emergence of OSS in the Bahia hospital scene from 2005 forward, side by side with the weakness of the Health State Council control and the revival of the "best efficiency" discourse that would be "almost like the state." To meet the new policy and tune up with the new government discourse, ex-outsourced companies changed their legal personality to OSS. Such disguised privatization process was protagonized by a government that supported contrary speech about this practice antagonistical to the principles of health security, expressed by the Brazilian Constitution.

A New Approach to Organization and Implementation of Military Medical Treatment in Response to Military Reform and Modern Warfare in the Chinese Army.

BACKGROUND: Recent system reforms within the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have led to establishment of 5 theatre commands and a general joint logistics command. These reforms have presented new challenges to the organization and implementation of medical services. The medical service of the PLA must keep pace with these reforms by applying innovative theories to establish appropriate organizational guidelines and structures. The medical service must also adapt to the modern and future eras of information warfare. METHODS: We review the existing structure and features of the military medical service of the PLA, highlighting issues related to ongoing reform within the PLA and the characteristics of modern and future information warfare. Reflection on current rules for medical evacuation and treatment of war-related injuries were made, and related organizational and structural innovations were proposed. FINDINGS: Recent reforms and the characteristics of modern information warfare have rendered the current medical service and medical evacuation system of the PLA inefficient. The scale of the echelon configuration should be adjusted to establish a more focused, effective, and intelligent medical service. Resource allocation and general joint logistics should be optimized to establish a new well-rounded, three-dimensional medical evacuation system, and the "stabilize before healing" rule should be applied at all levels of the medical service. These changes should help to create a modern, effective, and responsive medical service within the PLA. DISCUSSION: This article explores how the military medical service of the PLA could adapt to system reform in order to implement efficient treatment of war injuries, reduce mortality and morbidity rates, and maintain combat readiness in the modern era of information warfare.

Gestão em saúde na fronteira: revisão integrativa da imbricância para a assistência hospitalar / Gestión de la salud en la frontera: revisión integradora de su impacto en laatención hospitalaria / Health management in frontier: integrative review on its impact for hospital care

Objetivo: Identificar os subsídios propiciados pela produção científica à gestão hospitalar de saúde em áreas de fronteira. Métodos: Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa que explorou o universo de 24 artigos indexados na Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde, na base de dados Literatura Latino-Americanae do Caribe em Ciência da Saúde (LILACS). Resultados: Aspectos socioeconômicos da gestão em saúde na fronteira que evidenciaram a mobilidade de pessoas e a gestão dos serviços de saúde e; aspectos clínicos para a gestão em saúde na fronteira que destacou os aspectos do serviço e as características da clientela. Conclusão: A saúde em área de fronteira pela produção científica explorada subsidia a gestão hospitalar ao indicar os aspectos socioeconômicos como determinantes do processo saúde-doença. Determinação que acarreta na ampliação da demanda e da necessidade de tecnologia diagnóstica em saúde.

Objective: To identify the subsidies provided by scientific production to hospital health management in frontier areas. Methods: This is an integrative review that explored the universe of 24 articles indexed in the Virtual HealthLibrary, the database of Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS). Results: Socioeconomic health management aspects at the border that showed the mobility of people and the management of health services and; clinical aspects of health management at the border which highlighted aspects of service and customer characteristics. Conclusion: Health in the frontier area explored in scientific production subsidizes the hospital management to indicate the socioeconomic factors as determinants of the health-disease. Determination which results in increased demand and the need for health diagnostic technology.

Objetivo: Identificar subsidios propiciados por la producción científicade la gestión hospitalaria de salud en las zonas fronterizas. Métodos: Se trata de una revisión integradora que explora el universo de 24 artículos indexados en la Biblioteca Virtual en Salud, en la base de datos de América Latina y el Caribe de la Salud Ciencia (LILACS). Resultados: Aspectos socioeconómicos de Gestión de la Salud en la Frontera que demuestran la movilidad de las personas y la gestión de los servicios de salud y; Aspectos clínicos para la Gestión de la Salud en la Frontera que destacaron los aspectos de las características del servicio y atención al cliente. Conclusión: Salud en el área de frontera de producción científica explorado presentado subvenciona la gestión hospitalaria para indicar los aspectos socioeconómicos como determinantes de la salud-enfermedad. Determinación de que implica la expansión de la demanda y la necesidad de tecnología de diagnóstico en salud.

[The future of hospitals and the hospitals in the future]. / A kórházak jövoje, a jövo kórházai.

By the end of the 20th century the vertically organized hospitals formed into a closed hierarchical system, in which the healthcare supply significantly fragmented. The existing hospitals in the current organization are not prepared for the increase in longevity, nor for the high growth in the number of chronic and long-term illnesses and the multi-morbidity since they were not designed for extended carry treatments. The fast incorporation of high-tech and very expensive technologies into healthcare generates an economic crisis. Solving the supply and economic crisis at the same time cannot be achieved without changing the structure of hospitals. Future hospitals will be organized in a network, conducting special treatments according to disease profiles. According to present knowledge, this is the only structure that allows for economies in scale, the proper spending of the ever-shrinking resources, and to ensure the effective patient care required after the changing of disorder structures and patient corporate identities. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(28), 1099-1104.

Influência da cultura organizacional na gestão participativa em organizações de saúde / Influencia de la cultura organizacional en la gestión participativa en las organizaciones de salud / Influence of organizational culture on participatory Imanagement in health organizations

Objective: To analyzes cientific literature about organizational culture’s influencein facilitating participatory management in health organizations. Method: integrative review of literature; Databases: Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, LILACS, PubMed e Medline. Inclusion criteria: original and review papers,available in Portuguese, English or Spanish; the papers’ year of publication was unlimited. Results: it was found 450 papers and, after selection, six of them were analyzed. Among the papers analyzed, three of them were publications in health management field, one in management area, one in nursing and one medicine area, there was variation between 1992 and 2009 in the papers publication year. The studies showed that organizational culture influences the kind of management of the institution. Conclusion: The organizational culture will direct the management style adopted, and thus, will influence organizational change.

Objetivo: Analisar a produção científica existente sobre a influência da cultura organizacional na viabilização da gestão participativa em organizações de saúde. Método: Revisão integrativa da literatura;Base de Dados: Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, LILACS, PubMed e Medline. Critérios de inclusão: artigos originais e de revisão, disponíveis nos idiomas português, inglês ou espanhol; Não foi limitado o ano das publicações. Resultados: Encontrados 450 artigos, após seleção, foram analisados seis deles. Dentre os artigos analisados, três se caracterizaram por serem publicações na área de gerenciamento em saúde, um na área de gerenciamento, um na área de enfermagem e um na área de medicina; no ano de publicação, houve variação entre 1992 e 2009. Os estudos evidenciaram que a cultura de uma organização influencia o tipo de gestão da instituição. Conclusão: A cultura de uma organização é que direcionará o estilo de gestão adotado, e, consequentemente, influenciará na mudança organizacional.

Objetivo: Analizar la literatura científica existente sobre la influencia de la cultura organizacional para facilitar la gestión participativa en las organizaciones de salud. Método: revisión Integradora; Bases de datos: Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, LILACS, MEDLINE y PubMed. Criterios de inclusión: artículos originales y de revisión, disponibles em Portugués, Inglés o Español, sin limite del año. Resultados: Se encontraron 450 artículos, después de la selección, seis de ellos fueron analizados. Entre los artículos analizados, três fueron publicaciones en el campo de la gestión de la salud, uno em el ámbito de la gestión, una em la enfermería y una em la medicina; el año de publicación varió entre 1992 y 2009. Los estúdios mostraron que la cultura organizacional influye em el tipo de gestión de la institución. Conclusión: La cultura de una organización dirige el estilo de gestión adoptado, y por lo tanto influye en el cambio organizacional.

International benchmarking and best practice management: in search of health care and hospital excellence.

PURPOSE: Hospitals worldwide are facing the same opportunities and threats: the demographics of an aging population; steady increases in chronic diseases and severe illnesses; and a steadily increasing demand for medical services with more intensive treatment for multi-morbid patients. Additionally, patients are becoming more demanding. They expect high quality medicine within a dignity-driven and painless healing environment. The severe financial pressures that these developments entail oblige care providers to more and more cost-containment and to apply process reengineering, as well as continuous performance improvement measures, so as to achieve future financial sustainability. At the same time, regulators are calling for improved patient outcomes. Benchmarking and best practice management are successfully proven performance improvement tools for enabling hospitals to achieve a higher level of clinical output quality, enhanced patient satisfaction, and care delivery capability, while simultaneously containing and reducing costs. APPROACH: This chapter aims to clarify what benchmarking is and what it is not. Furthermore, it is stated that benchmarking is a powerful managerial tool for improving decision-making processes that can contribute to the above-mentioned improvement measures in health care delivery. The benchmarking approach described in this chapter is oriented toward the philosophy of an input-output model and is explained based on practical international examples from different industries in various countries. FINDINGS: Benchmarking is not a project with a defined start and end point, but a continuous initiative of comparing key performance indicators, process structures, and best practices from best-in-class companies inside and outside industry. Benchmarking is an ongoing process of measuring and searching for best-in-class performance: Measure yourself with yourself over time against key performance indicators. Measure yourself against others. Identify best practices. Equal or exceed this best practice in your institution. Focus on simple and effective ways to implement solutions. Comparing only figures, such as average length of stay, costs of procedures, infection rates, or out-of-stock rates, can lead easily to wrong conclusions and decision making with often-disastrous consequences. Just looking at figures and ratios is not the basis for detecting potential excellence. It is necessary to look beyond the numbers to understand how processes work and contribute to best-in-class results. Best practices from even quite different industries can enable hospitals to leapfrog results in patient orientation, clinical excellence, and cost-effectiveness. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Despite common benchmarking approaches, it is pointed out that a comparison without "looking behind the figures" (what it means to be familiar with the process structure, process dynamic and drivers, process institutions/rules and process-related incentive components) will be extremely limited referring to reliability and quality of findings. In order to demonstrate transferability of benchmarking results between different industries practical examples from health care, automotive, and hotel service have been selected. Additionally, it is depicted that international comparisons between hospitals providing medical services in different health care systems do have a great potential for achieving leapfrog results in medical quality, organization of service provision, effective work structures, purchasing and logistics processes, or management, etc.

Building a culture for innovation: a leadership challenge.

It is recognized that health services are facing increasing cost pressures amid a climate of increasing demand and increasing expectations from patients and families. The ability to innovate is important for the future success of all health care organizations. By malting some simple but profound changes in behaviours and processes as illustrated across seven dimensions, leaders can have great impact on the culture for innovation. This in turn can support the transformation of health services through increased innovation.

The key to health services in Turkey: new perspectives on leadership and hospital management.

Health services are one of the most important criteria for making a country function. Turkey has mobilized all of its resources to provide high-quality, easily accessible and patient-friendly services for its population. To achieve this aim, the Turkish health care system has been undergoing a significant transformation through its Health Transformation Programme begun in 2005. The reforms focus on the introduction of a general health insurance system, changing hospital health services, improvements in hospital management and transformational leadership skills. Firstly, all state-run hospitals in the country were merged under the same umbrella, giving millions of people covered by the national security agency access to all of these hospitals. Secondly, all drugs and medical equipment used by patients were made free of charge. Thanks to these developments, hospitals were modernized, and this modernization process in the health sector is still continuing swiftly. On the other hand, for Turkish hospitals to survive, they need to modernize further and become closer to European models, and produce new leaders with new paradigms. In this new and changing health system, hospital leaders and executive officers should be visionaries and strategists advising when to change direction. Following this doctrine, most Turkish hospitals are now run by two top executives: the hospital manager and the chief executive officer who is in charge of business functions. These executives should clearly be the leaders of high-quality, health care organizations.