Editorial
Better People, Better Hospitals
Companies are beginning to realise that employees are more than just a cost factor but also an important resource with sustainable competitive advantages. So it is particularly worrying to discover that the topic of personnel management is often underestimated. Carsten Steinert, Professor of personnel management at the University of Osnabrück in Germany believes that poor people management is often tolera...
News
Regional CEO-Conference on Strategic Management and ICT
Information and communication technology has entered many domains of our society. It has a huge potential to the benefit of citizens and companies, patients and healthcare institutions. Examples of benefits are increased networking, empowerment and participation of individuals and stakeholders and increased use of information. But the challenges in healthcare are huge. Values such as universality, access...
First Joint European Hospital Conference
On 18 November 2011 the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation (HOPE), the European Association of Hospital Managers (EAHM) and the Association of European Hospital Physicians (AEMH) are holding the first joint European Hospital Conference (EHC). In the morning, Mr. Mars Di Bartolomeo, Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Luxembourg will speak about the current European health policies followed by...
National News
Hospital 2.0: The Perpetual Beta Version
During the annual congress of the Austrian Association of Hospital Directors in Graz in May 2011, roughly 300 participants and healthcare decision makers gathered to focus on the changing times and important consequences for the hospital industry. Expert speakers highlighted innovative and pragmatic approaches. The main conclusion was to learn from one another and develop solutions with dedicated initiativ...
EU News
Rights and Needs of Older Patients
Older patients and citizens should play a central role in the design and implementation of solutions for active and healthy ageing, in order to respect their rights and meet their needs. This was the strong message of the participants at the Conference "The Rights and Needs of Older Patients" organised by the European Patients' Forum (EPF) and the Federation of Polish Patients (FPP). Over 100 participant...
New European Task Force on Patient Safety
Health First Europe together with Task Force Patron MEP Christofer Fjellner (EPP, Sweden), launched the Task Force on Patient Safety to demand more stringent recommendations for Member States with regards to the safety of patients. As part of the review of the Council Recommendations on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections, the Task Force will utilise its...
EU Affairs
Priorities
Hungary and Poland wasted no time in using their stint at the helm of the EU this year to stamp their mark on Europe's public health agenda. Both have used the six-month rotating EU presidency to raise issues of concern to their own health services. The former drew attention to the consequences of the exodus of health professionals from eastern to western Europe as doctors and nurses move to earn salaries...
Personnel Management
Human Resources Development
"It is becoming more and more difficult to find sufficiently qualified young employees for the health professions. The training and qualification of employees and also executives in the hospital sector is of special importance in this context. The course is set for success here. Executives and employees trained well create the prerequisites for positive motivation and successful qualitative processes and e...
Recession and Regulation Bring New Challenges to Acute Hospital Staff Counselling Services
The value to the individual of the psychological insights and psychotherapeutic inputs of workplace counselling has long been anecdotally recognised by acute hospital managers. New research, however, suggests that the adoption of a broader organisation-wide approach by counsellors may yield additional benefits in difficult times. Research for this qualitative study was undertaken last year in Beaumont Ho...
The Financial Cost of Locum Doctors
Definition: Locum: A person who stands in temporarily for someone else of the same profession, especially a cleric or doctor (OED).Introduction The Mid-Western Regional Hospital (MWRH) in Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland has an Emergency Department (ED) staff complement of nine Senior House Officers (SHO) and six Registrars required for 24-hour emergency medicine cover for each sixmonth interval; in addition...
Healthy Hospitals
Health Promoting Hospitals
"A health promoting hospital does not only provide high quality comprehensive medical and nursing services, but also develops a corporate identity that embraces the aims of health promotion, develops a health promoting organisational structure and culture, including active, participatory roles for patients and all members of staff, develops itself into a health promoting physical environment and actively c...
Green Hospitals
Green hospitals are to be energy saving, resource conserving, environmentally friendly, health supporting, efficient, and strategically managed. However, does sustainable building turn healthcare buildings into efficient, future-proof structures of lasting value? It is now possible to design economic and at the same time sustainable healthcare buildings at reasonable cost. The term sustainability does no...
Matrix
The Patient Room
A growing number of hospitals are being built with mostly single-bedded rooms instead of multi-bedded. But it is unclear to what extent decisions are based on scientific, evidence-based knowledge or political, economic, organisational or cultural requirements. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the latest scientific knowledge about the pros and cons of single-bedded and multi-bedded w...
Medtech
An Innovative Technological Building
The new Surgery and Emergency Centre of the University Hospital Authority S. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic of Bologna was inaugurated in September 2010. This is a technological building of about 25,000 m2, which includes the following functions: Emergency Department, Diagnostic Imaging, Operating Blocks and Intensive Care Unit, as well as a new Central Sterile Supply Department for surgical instruments intend...
Interview
Overview of the French Healthcare System
Social Protection System The social protection system created in 1945 was aimed primarily at workers and their families. The expansion of health insurance coverage was implemented in stages during the 1960s. The Universal Health Coverage Act (CMU) concluded this process in 1999 by establishing universal health coverage. Although run by employers and employees, the social protection system is increasingly u...
ADH: A Think Tank
Questioning the various ways of governing, sketching out healthcare "leadership skills", developing hospital executives' proficiency, supporting adjustment to ongoing reforms. Through training programmes, collective thinking, professional and institutional partnership ADH is committed to guiding hospital directors through challenging situations and providing answers to the question of how to manage our h...
SMPS: The Union for Public Health Managers
Created in 1947 by hospital directors in charge of economic and financial management, le Syndicat National des Cadres Hospitaliers (SNCH) has progressively opened up to all hospital executives: Administrative, medical and technical. Aware of the evolution of the healthcare sector and in particular the integration of hospitals into a global healthcare system including the social and medico-social sector,...
Afradess
The French Association of Directors and Executives of Health, Social and Medico- Social Establishments (AFRADESS) has been bringing together executives in this sector for 25 years. The goals of the association are: To meet the needs of these executives; To develop solidarity, belonging, professionalism and job security for its members; To be active in all domains affecting the management of health establis...
French
Editorial
Better People, Better Hospitals Les entreprises commencent à réaliser que leurs salariés représentent plus qu'un simple facteur de coût. Ils sont surtout une importante ressource pourvoyeuse d'avantages concurrentiels durables. Il est donc particulièrement inquiéta... Read more...
AEDH News
Une Conférence Régionale De Directeurs D’hôpitaux Sur La Gestion Stratégique Et Les Technologies De L'information Et De La Communication Les technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) sont entrées dans de nombreux domaines de notre société et représentent un formidable potentiel au service des citoyens et des entreprises, des patients et des établissements de santé. Les avanta...
Executive Summaries
La Formation Du Personnel, Une Activité Importante Pour Les Gestionnaires Hospitaliers On ne peut que déplorer le manque de personnel qualifié au sein des professionnels de la santé dans de nombreux pays européens. Parmi les nombreuses activités que peut assurer la gestion des ressources humaines, celle très particulière qui concerne le perfectionnement du personnel s'attache à former du personn...
German
Better People, Better Hospitals
In Unternehmungen setzt sich zunehmend die Auffassung durch, dass die Mitarbeiter nicht nur einen Kostenfaktor, sondern eine wichtige Ressource und Quelle nachhaltiger Wettbewerbsvorteile darstellen. Umso beunruhigender ist es zu wissen, dass in der heutigen Zeit das Thema Personalführung klar unterschätzt wird. So wird schlechte Personalführung toleriert, sofern das operative Ergebnis des Unternehmens...
EKVD News
Regionale CEO-Konferenz Über Strategisches Management Und ICT Die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie hat in viele Bereiche unserer Gesellschaft Einzug gehalten. Damit verbunden ist ein enormes Potential zum Vorteil von Bürgern und Unternehmen, Patienten und Gesundheitseinrichtungen. Beispiele dieser Vorteile sind etwa das verbesserte Netzwerken, Ermächtigung und Teilnahme von Bürgern und Int...
Executive Summaries
Personalentwicklung- Eine Wichtige Aufgabe Des Krankenhausmangements Der Mangel an qualifizierten Mitarbeitern in den Gesundheitsberufen wird auch in vielen Ländern Europas immer spürbarer. Neben vielen anderen Maßnahmen kann das Personalmanagement, und hier vor allem eine zielgerichtete Personalentwicklung, einen wesentlichen Beitrag leisten, um qualifizierte Mitarbeiter heranzubilden, dauerhaft zu m...