Health and Medical Administration Commons^™

Myopia Of Health-Care Reform Using Business Models, Macinnes Kenneth, Vivian C. Mcalister

Vivian C. McAlister

Background: Health-care institutions have looked to business for models to respond to the requirement for reform. This has changed the perspective of institutions that were founded on charitable principles, and managed with liberal employment policies and deficit budgeting. Using lesions from supply-side management, hospitals are fragmenting into independent programs with demands to balance budgets regardless of the source of cost.

Methods: Costs from the institution’s perspective are compared with those of the payer (province) using an example of a proposal to reduce costs in the surgical program by buying disposable drapes.

Results: The actual cost of disposable drapes bought from …

Teaching The Human Dimensions Of Care In The Clinical Settings, William T. Branch Jr. Md, Macp

William T.Branch Jr.MD

Despite repeated calls to emphasize the humanistic dimensions of care during medical education, these are few known techniques for effective teaching of humanism. We describe the barriers that inhibit humanistic teaching and suggest pragmatic teaching methods to overcome such barriers and teach humanistic care in clinical settings. We began by asking participants at a conference on patient-physician communications sponsored by the American Academy on Physician and Patient in June 1998, "What can we do in the patient's presence to improve and teach the human dimensions of care? Please provide one or more examples of approaches you found to be effective." …