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Executive
Summary: Creating a Healing Environment: The Importance of the Service
Setting in the New Consumer-Oriented Healthcare System
Over
the last ten years, the healthcare industry has recognized that the physical
environment is a valuable resource that can and does affect all of its
customers. Although most service organizations give some thought to setting,
its importance to the service experience has been most thoroughly understood
by those who view and treat their customers as guests, that is, the guest
service industry. An excellent healing environment will reinforce excellent
clinical quality, but an inferior environment can detract from the clinical
care. One of the most important principles learned by the great guest
service industry is to provide the setting customers expect. Another is
to create an environment that meets or exceeds customer needs for safety,
security, support, competence, physical comfort, and psychological comfort.
This article provides a detailed discussion of how such and environment
can be created in healthcare facilities drawing from the experience of
the best guest service organizations.
For more information on this article, please contact Dr. Fottler at: fottler@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu.
Executive
Summary: From Advocacy to Ambassadorship: Physician Participation
in Healthcare Governance
Increasingly,
physician leaders are called upon to assume governance positions in healthcare
organizations. These range from small group practices to integrated systems
with a region or even national presence. Yet the meaning of board membership
and the skills required for effective contributions in the boardroom are
often unclear. This article reviews the essential challenges to governance
bodies in the healthcare field, and focuses particularly on the issue
of ambassadorship an often neglected but essential aspect of effective
board participation.
For more information on this article, please contact Dr. Lister at: KiAssoc@aol.com.
Executive
Summary: Nontraditional Services Provided By Nonprofit and For-profit
Hospitals: Implications for Community Health
In part
because of reimbursement changes in the 1980s, hospitals became involved
in health promotion and disease prevention activities often to attract
patients. Today, these services may have an effect on the burden of disease
and on illness delivery, assessing the scope of these services and integrating
them with other private-public efforts is of utmost importance. Here we
use a 1993 survey of all 4,977 private medical and surgical hospitals
in the United States to determine the scope of disease prevention, health
enhancement, and palliative services provided by facility type, geographic
location, and institutional ownership. We found that church-operated and
other nonprofit hospitals appear to provide a spectrum of palliative and
preventive health services both for their patients and those in the local
community. Given their apparent scope, these services could have an effect
on the burden of disease and on illness prevention in many communities.
With major changes anticipated in future healthcare delivery and the recent
failures reported to focus on ways to integrate their services with other
private and public health efforts. If this could be achieved, then private
hospitals could be more successful in serving their local communities
and in enhancing the public's health in the new century. This article
outlines several basic steps to assist administrators in achieving these
goals.
For more information on this article, please contact Dr. Boscarino at:
joseph_boscarino@merck.com
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