Managed Care: Practice and Progress PDF

Preface

 I wrote this book initially with the sole intention of giving readers an in-depth appreciation of managed care in the USA and a balanced assessment of its applicability to the UK. As time passed it became obvious that, in addition to the above, I was being drawn to comment about the current state of the NHS reforms, and that this would give greater focus to observations about US health care, management and techniques. My consistent aim has been to produce a work that would add to most readers' knowledge and will contribute to the development of health care management regardless of which party occupies government, and which path reform takes.

I was able to write this book from first-hand experience of the managed care industry, via a six-month secondment to Sentara Health System in Virginia, USA - one of the leading health care companies on the East Coast. I am extremely grateful to Sentara for the unparalleled access to meetings, documents and personnel afforded to me during my time there. The secondment was made possible by the support of the then chief executive of Dyfed Health Authority - Mike Ponton - and formed part of the leadership development programme for NHS Wales. I strongly believe that it is extremely important that the NHS encourages external placements as a way of developing its staff, and encouraging access to new ideas. Insularity is one of the public sector's most enduring and least attractive characteristics.

Amongst the many individuals I wish to thank for their assistance in getting this book written and making my time in the USA so productive are Richard Hill, Ted Willie, Tommy Lee, Bert Reese, Bob Rash, and Anne Marie and John Cochrane (in the USA), and Mike Ponton, Sue Brown and David Evans (in the UK). Finally, I wish to thank my wife - Jill- for her unrelenting understanding and support. The views in this book are the author's and should not be seen as representing that of his employer - Dyfed Powys Health Authority - or NHS Wales. In the course of this book the terms 'physician' and 'doctor' are used interchangeably as are the terms 'HMO' and 'managed care'. A glossary is provided on pages 210-223

Authors: Michael Drury, Merrill Whalen