Healthcare Management

"... this is an excellent text. It is well constructed and appropriately pitched and, because the editors seek feedback on its style and content, it is likely to retain its relevance in future editions."
Nursing Management

This comprehensive text covers all of the major aspects of healthcare management and is written by experts in the field. The book is structured into three main sections, bracketed by an introductory chapter setting the policy context and offering an overview/map of what follows; a concluding chapter draws together the key themes and offers a view about the future development and trends in healthcare management.

The main sections of the book examine:

• The health policy and practice context for healthcare management
• The specific challenges of managing healthcare organizations
• Key managerial techniques and methods that managers need to be able to use effectively in their practice

Chapters include self-test exercises, summary boxes, further reading and a list of web-based resources.

This book is key reading for researchers, managers and healthcare policy makers with a genuine interest in the links between the theory and practice of healthcare management and how best practice might be achieved within healthcare systems.

Contributors: Lawrence Benson, Carol Brooks, Ruth Boaden, Naomi Chambers, Deborah Davidson, Jennifer Dixon, Jenny Douglas, Tim Freeman, Jon Glasby, Neil Goodwin, Andrew Hine, Paula Hyde, Kim Jelphs, Justin Keen, Helen Lester, Ann Mahon, Anne McBride, Ruth McDonald, Shirley McIver, Steve Onyett, Helen Parker, Edward Peck, Suzanne Robinson, Ann Shacklady-Smith, Judith Smith, Anne Tofts, Tom Walley, Kieran Walshe, Juliet Woodin.

Kieran Walshe is director and professor of health policy and management at Manchester Business School's Centre for Public Policy and Management. He has been a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy at the University of California and Senior Research Fellow with the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. He is an advisor to the National Audit Office and was an expert witness to the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry. He is the author of Regulating Healthcare (OpenUP 2003) which was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Medicine Book Awards 2004. Kieran's second book with OpenUP, co-edited with Ruth Boaden, on Patient Safety published in November 2005.

Judith Smith is Senior Lecturer at the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests are concerned with primary care, commissioning, the development of health care organisations, and international health care. She is national director of the education programme for the NHS Management Training Scheme (MTS), and has recently successfully led a consortium of education providers in bidding to redesign and provide the MTS education programme for a further three years from 2004. She is co-author of Smith J & Goodwin N. The Formation of Primary Care Trusts in England: Lessons for Research and Practice (2004).