[A call for organizational and managerial changes in primary and hospital care services]

The changing epidemiological situation and socio-economic conditions in Italy have led to a situation where the Italian health care system no longer adequately satisfies the actual needs of society. Organizational and managerial changes in both primary and hospital care are needed and are proposed in this article. As regards general practice and primary healthcare it is crucial that a stable and exclusive relationship between GPs and their patients be regained through continuous and qualified care by the GP. This can be achieved through the establishment of primary care structures where a team of general practitioners work in association with nursing personnel for the delivery of key services including continuous at-home assistance. As for the organization of hospital care it would be useful to set up, in addition to existing general hospitals, "zonal inpatient facilities", resembling the old "infirmaries", directed by a specialized nurse and with a small full-time medical staff. In these facilities, designed for brief hospitalizations of patients with chronic conditions, GPs could take part in the management of their patients. Two important results could be achieved by establishing such facilities: a substantial reduction of healthcare costs related to frequent hospitalizations of patients with chronic medical conditions, and a structural reorganization of existing hospitals. Presently hospitals are often too large especially considering the continuous progresses made in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques which allow consistently shorter lengths of hospital stay and consequently, a more rapid turnover of patients.

Performance management in small practices

Performance management, variably referred to as corporate, business, or enterprise performance management, has traditionally been viewed as a strategy to achieve an optimum mix of solvency, quality, safety, and patient satisfaction in large healthcare organizations. Now, however, with the readily available data from government and nonprofit organizations promoting quality health care and affordable business intelligence tools, small practices can adopt management strategies, tools, and techniques once limited to corporate executives. With a modest investment in self-assessment and affordable analysis tools, a small practice can benefit from a scaled-down version of the performance management initiatives in place at the leading health-care organizations.

Advances in equine practice management

As equine practices move forward in the 21st century, we feel increasing pressure to manage our businesses like business people. This requires outside expertise, in-house business-trained managers, and continuing education on various aspects of practice life. Aside from the AAEP, several other organizations are providing continuing education in management, including the Association of Veterinary Practice Managers, the Veterinary Management Institute offered at Purdue University Krannert Graduate School of Management, the American Animal Hospital Association through (The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine's) on-line practice management course, and the University of Illinois Equine Practice Management modules.

Advances in information technology

Advances in digital technology have vastly increased the speed and content of information transfer. Equine practitioners of the future should be in contact with their office and other information resources at all times through an array of digital networks. Patients and practitioners alike should benefit from better information access.

Psychotropic PRN: a model for best practice management of acute psychotic behavioural disturbance in inpatient psychiatric settings

PRN, or 'as needed', medications are administered frequently by mental health nurses in psychiatric inpatient settings to manage difficult and disturbed behaviour when other strategies fail. Research indicates that approximately 50% of psychiatric inpatients receive a PRN medication at some stage of their treatment. Although evidence indicates that traditional antipsychotics and benzodiazepines are equally effective in managing acute agitation and other psychotic symptoms, it has been recommended that benzodiazepines should be the first-line of action because they do not cause the serious side-effects that are common with the traditional antipsychotics. Unfortunately, research indicates that doctors and nurses are not taking advantage of the latest evidence to guide their practice. This paper reviews the limited research available in the area and makes recommendations for evidence-based practice.

Three perspectives on physical therapist managerial work

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The nature of managerial work in the commercial sector has not been studied since the 1970s, and little is known about the work of managers in the health care sector. In this study, the perceived importance of managerial role and skill categories among 3 groups of physical therapists were studied to better understand the work priorities of physical therapist managers.

SUBJECTS

Two groups of subjects were physical therapist managers in hospitals or private practices. A third group consisted of faculty members in professional physical therapist education programs.

METHODS

Respondents (n=343) rated the importance of 75 managerial activities. Responses related to 16 predetermined work categories were placed in rank order by group. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to identify differences among groups.

RESULTS

All groups identified communication, financial control, entrepreneur, resource allocator, and leader as the 5 most important categories and rated technical expert and figurehead as least important. The MANOVA showed differences between faculty members and private practice managers in 15 work categories, between hospital-based managers and private practice managers in 9 categories, and between faculty members and hospital-based managers in 8 categories.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Work setting appears to have an impact on level of importance placed on managerial work categories. The strongest candidates for "universal" physical therapist managerial work categories were communication, financial control, and resource allocator.

Pragmatism and structuralism in occupational therapy: the long conversation

The history of occupational therapy may be understood as a continual transaction between two cultural discourses: pragmatism and structuralism. Pragmatism is a way of thinking that presupposes humans are agentic by nature and knowledge is tentative and created within particular contexts. Structuralism is a way of thinking that assumes humans are composites of recurring general frameworks and that knowledge is objective and can be generalized to multiple contexts. Early in the field's history, both pragmatist and structuralist assumptions about the human and knowledge produced different readings, or interpretations, of what constituted the appropriate tools, methods, and outcomes for occupational therapy. Consequently, occupational therapy adopted an interesting mix of pragmatist language regarding the human and structuralist approaches to knowledge, resulting in professional identity problems still experienced today. However, recent developments offer an opportunity for occupational therapists to correct old identity problems through critically evaluating incompatible assumptions and carefully reading the prevailing cultural ethos.

Practice unwinds and disengagements

Many employed physicians are being forced to consider entering the private practice arena as physicians networks and groups are contemplating total or partial divestitures. Still other physicians are evaluating the possibility of leaving their current practice or hospital based network and opening their own practice. This article is designed to better prepare a physician for this situation ad proactively plan for their future.