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The EFQM model for organisational excellence is used in the health care sector as a tool to diagnose and assess the starting position for an effective QM programme. Feedback reports cover the fields of acute medical care, rehabilitation and ambulant care and contain strengths areas for improvement. Building on the EFQM feedback reports, the Modular Concept for Quality in Health Care (“Heidelberg Model”) improves QM both holistically and specifically by implementing so‐called “Modules for Excellence”. The implementation process follows principles of project management covering medical, nursing and managing issues and the performance is periodically evaluated against targets. QM projects that are designed in the dichotomic way follow three goals. Organisational diagnosis and therapy lead to numerical health care improvements in “Prevention of nosocomial infections” and “Optimising out‐patient treatment”. Different assessment approaches lead to a diagnosing feedback report for QM in health care. The Modular Concept for Quality in Health Care (“Heidelberg Model”) clusters, prioritises, implements and evaluates the organisation’s key areas for improvement.

Explores the theoretical context of quality and quality assurance in health care through a detailed review of the current literature. Outlines the definitions of quality and quality assurance. Identifies the two structural elements of quality assurance: quality assessment and quality improvement and control. Explores in some detail the elements of health care which are capable of assessment and the relationships between them. Finally, considers the mechanisms which can be used to improve health care if deficiencies are highlighted.

This paper provides a European overview of alternative approaches to integrated care for older people, drawing from a wider European project entitled PROCARE. It discusses the structural complexities that create the challenges in integrated care, compares and contrasts approaches to integrated care through a structure and process framework, and considers the place of person‐centred seamless care in European health and social care models.

The development of managed care plans is the most dramatic change in the USA’s health care system in recent decades. Despite the widespread growth, society is increasingly concerned with the quality of managed care programs. This article addresses the regulatory pressures that are being placed on managed care organisations, and examines what health care practitioners can do to minimize the impact of increased regulation. We look at the major factors that are likely to bring about changes in the health care sector, and predict how these changes will affect the quality of health care that is being delivered in the near future. Addresses how quality can become and remain the primary factor in the delivery of health care services. Finally, concludes that greater involvement by the federal government is necessary to protect consumers’ rights, and ensure better quality health care from managed care programs.

We hope this research volume will change the way scholars and managers think about health care management in two fundamental ways. First, we want to challenge the superficial separations between national and international health care management. To dissolve these distinctions, the “not-invented-here” or “who cares about a Belgian, Indian, or Thai medical center,” or “that won’t work in our policy system” attitudes must change. Second, we want scholars and managers to learn how to transfer innovative ideas and management practices across cultures and around policy barriers. Cultural, language, and policy differences present formidable barriers, but we believe lessons about managing human resources, informatics, quality, services, and strategies in health care organizations can be transferred.

The aim of this research is to develop a model to forecast short-term health cost changes. The motivation for producing such a model is to provide local decision makers with a tool to predict short-term health-care costs in their localities. In order to achieve this objective, we collected data on total health-care expenditures and demographic data for California counties from 2000 to 2007. We then used various statistical methods to better understand the data and developed a regression model. Each year's prediction model was then used to forecast the following year's total health-care expenditure. The model developed adequately predicted health-care costs for the years on which the model was developed (2000–2006), and adequately forecast health-care costs for the holdout year, 2007. The average adjusted R2 value was 0.57, with an average mean absolute deviation score of 34. The best predictors of total health-care expenditures were county population, the number of county health-care facilities, and county per capita personal income. The practical implications of the model are that it will provide public and private decision makers with a useful tool for forecasting short-term demand for health-care services, enabling better planning for health-care manpower, facility planning, and financial planning needs. The contribution of this paper contrasts with the earlier work in that it supports short-term operational, not strategic, planning needs. The paper's limitation is that it relies on data from one state. It should be tested in other, dissimilar, areas of the United States.

This study aims to explore the challenges in the Jordanian health-care system and the potential solutions for these challenges.

A narrative literature review was conducted.

The challenges of the health-care system in Jordan related to geriatric care are the new emergence of nursing homes; the limited health-care services and supplies; the growing aging population; the dramatic change in the family structure. There are many credible approaches used to solve those challenges, including social networking, advocacy, education and research, lobbying and financial support.

There is a lack of research studies examining the perceived barriers and facilitators of geriatric care in Jordan from the perspectives of health-care professionals, health-care managers and older adults themselves. Future intervention studies are recommended to target the challenges in the Jordanian health-care system concerning geriatric care.

Older people (particularly 75 years+) are the main users of health and social care services. They are also the age group most likely to occupy non‐decent homes. Government health and social care policy is increasingly focused on enabling more older people to remain living independently in their own homes and on delivery of care ‘at or closer to home’. This article considers how greater recognition of the negative impacts of poor‐quality and inappropriate housing on older people's health and well‐being, combined with targeted housing repair and adaptation assistance, could contribute to achieving a range of current health and social care objectives, including enabling older people to live independently in mainstream housing and better management of chronic health conditions.

Partnership is both a goal and an approach to family-centered care (FCC). Family members play an important role alongside the health-care team when an older family member is admitted to the hospital. Family involvement in care for an older person forms a partnership approach where health professionals and the family engage collaboratively in care. This enhances the quality of care and family satisfaction with care. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential areas of partnerships of family members with health-care professionals while caring for older people based on the perspective of FCC.

A literature review was carried out.

The findings of this study focus on how healthcare professionals can listen to, respect the perspectives of family members, and share useful information with the family while caring for an older person. Family participation in providing care and collaboration between healthcare professionals and families is a seminal goal strategy in caring for older people during hospitalization. It is helpful to family members as a way of training and preparing them to assist their loved one after hospital discharge. Furthermore, it can establish a good relationship between healthcare professionals and families.

Partnership between health-care professionals and families helps and supports the older people and the family in managing the health condition the following discharge from the hospital.

This article begins a series of three about making a reality of integration policy in health and social care at individual, functional and cultural levels.

The paper outlines messages from policy debate and the Adult Social Care White Paper about the benefits to individuals and carers of improvements in integration. It follows the progress of a 91‐year‐old widow during a recent six‐week stay in hospital, and the difficulties she and her daughter encountered through professional and service faultlines and information blocks.

The paper questions the White Paper proposal for named professionals to coordinate care for people with complex needs, and argues that the benefits of integration will not be achieved without a significant change of culture. It outlines later papers exploring a functional model of integration, and examining the implications of culture change for the relationships between health and social care, between professionals and individuals, and between the Department of Health and the health and care system.

In “placing the individual at the centre”, the article grounds a series linking the newly‐published Care and Support White Paper and the emerging NHS reform programme to examine changes needed if integration is to benefit individuals and carers.