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With ageing hospital facilities spanning the USA, the healthcare construction business continues to grow. Today, questions about replacing existing facilities are becoming more common in hospital boardrooms. Given the above situation, TriBrook Healthcare Consultants were recently retained to determine the market, operational and financial impact which facility redevelopment has had on other hospitals and health systems. Out of that effort came this paper. This paper assesses: the factors which are fuelling replacement facility growth; the impact that redevelopment has on market, operational and financial performance; an integrated development process to help organisations determine the feasibility of designing a new facility; and lessons learned working with clients who have pursued a replacement facility strategy. The objective of this effort is to provide hospital executives and board leaders with information that will be useful in reaching a final decision regarding execution of a replacement strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to assess the seismic vulnerability of the built environment in the Himalayan township of Mussoorie in the state of Uttarakhand (India), paying specific attention to hospitals. Also an attempt is made to assess the magnitude of minimum economic losses, so as to design and undertake measures for reducing human misery in the event of a major disaster.

Seismic vulnerability of the building stock is evaluated using FEMA technique rapid visual screening and the likely earthquake induced damage is depicted as a function of the damage grades of the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS‐98). In total, 3,344 buildings, including 14 hospitals, are surveyed. In the field the structures are mapped using IKONOS satellite imagery while the collected data are analysed under geographic information system environment.

It was found that 18 percent of surveyed structures fall in high probability of Grade 5 damage and very high probability of Grade 4 damage class. This is estimated to result in economic loss of US$52.47 million. Almost, 80 percent of the hospitals of Mussoorie are thus likely to be non‐functional in the post‐earthquake phase due to varying degrees of structural and non‐structural damage.

The study does not account for the cost of demolition or ground clearance cost for reconstruction, or losses likely to be incurred by public infrastructure. Thus, it is implied that retrofitting and replacement of vulnerable healthcare infrastructure should be facilitated on a priority basis along with development of suitable plans for mitigating losses in an earthquake event.

The study brings forth the importance of corrective actions (retrofitting/replacement) and detailed vulnerability assessment of all lifeline structures on priority basis.

The results are intended to reduce seismic vulnerability and human toll in the event of any earthquake in the area.

The work is based upon the original data generated by the authors through rigorous fieldwork in the area and the results are totally based on these.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the conditions for a new service system in healthcare, which will be able to match the available capacity in and between healthcare units, in order to match the need of care for the patients.

By drawing on statements from patients, experiences from similar services (a literature review), empirical research into the effects of the reforms on free choice and the care guarantee and a theoretically informed discussion drawing on value‐creation and service productivity, it is claimed that a matching system is needed to be developed.

As healthcare lacks incentives and structures of matching capacity between various care providers, and for coordinating episodes of care for the patient, the result is management of capacity that is difficult and uncertain for patients. Continuity and coordination during all the healthcare process are seen as important values by patients. It is valuable for patients to be matched in the coordination of contacts with providers and specialists.

Healthcare matching generates the supportive data for innovative service research. For management, it could be applicable in different organisational areas, for patients in their choices of provider and for the providers, when matching the needs for patients. In further research, it would be of value to discuss the barriers of matching.

Outlining the conditions for a service system, healthcare matching, has not been done before.

The Stanford School of Organizational Sociology has influenced the development and direction of healthcare organizations as a field of research in several very significant ways. This chapter will provide a focused review of the major paradigms to develop from work at Stanford from 1970 to 2000, much of which involved the study of processes and structures within and surrounding healthcare organizations during this period. As a subarea of organizational theory and health services research, healthcare organizations embrace both theory-based research and applied research, and they borrow concepts, theories, and methods from medical sociology, organizational theory, healthcare administration and management, and (to a more limited extent) health economics and decision theory. The bulk of this chapter will focus on four major themes or paradigms from research on healthcare organizations that grew from work by faculty and students within the Stanford School of Organizational Sociology: Health Care Outcomes, Internal Organizational Dynamics, Organizations and Their Environments, and Organizational Systems of Care and Populations of Care Providers. Following our examination of these four paradigms, we will consider their implications for current and future debates in health services research and healthcare policy.

The purpose of this paper is to collect information about barriers and enablers experienced by international experts when transferring medical equipment to countries affected by humanitarian emergencies and to discuss the suitability of the principles of “openness”, “interconnections” and “non-linearity” of systems to understand the nature of the barriers and enablers as described by the international experts.

In this study, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from humanitarian organizations. The interviews were based on a simplified model of the transfer of medical equipment adapted from supply chain literature. The model ensured that all the process steps undertaken by humanitarian organizations were considered. Afterwards, the interviews were transcribed and structurally analysed to derive barriers and enablers. Finally, the results were described in light of three theoretical principles of systems thinking.

In total, 14 types of barriers and 12 types of enablers were uncovered that illustrate the complexity of transferring medical equipment in humanitarian emergencies. The paper concludes with a proposal for future research to investigate if, and how, an approach guided by systems thinking could help to create a designated space for the formulation of original, synergetic solutions that address the identified barriers.

This study is the first to explore the specific logistic challenges implicit in the transfer of medical equipment in humanitarian emergencies with a lifecycle perspective. Furthermore, the concept of systems thinking is rather novel in the field of transfer of medical technology.

This paper aims to examine the policy and guidance that was issued, either as a direct result of the NHS Plan, or part of a subsequent initiative, surrounding cleaning in the NHS.

A literature review of the Department of Health and related agency web sites was completed. In addition there was a literature review of the relevant academic journals.

There is a growing evidence base on environmental cleaning in the NHS and more specifically the relationship between environmental cleaning and infection control. This paper has examined the contradiction in the evidence in the suspected correlation between infection control and environmental cleaning. However, one thing that does appear to be consistent is that a performance measure based on an observation (visual) assessment is not a sufficient tool to evaluate the environmental cleanliness of a hospital ward.

While the clinical community recognise the contribution of environmental cleaning and the impact on healthcare, more needs to be done to have the relevant studies published in the FM domain. Conversely there also needs to be work done to allow the FM community to have a “voice” in the infection control journals. The literature reviewed suggests that a usable technological solution is required to confirm satisfactory cleaning standards in healthcare facilities.

There is relatively little published work on the importance of cleaning to operations in the NHS, particularly in the FM domain.

The purpose of this paper was to study the unfolding of an urgent and extensive decommissioning program in Sweden, focusing on the public’s reactions and their arguments when opposing the decommissioning activities.

The public’s responses were studied through local media. Its content was surveyed and divided into actions and arguments. The arguments were further analyzed and categorized into inductively developed themes.

Protest activities, such as demonstrations, meetings and petitions, were not coordinated, but mostly carried out for withdrawals of unique services and services in remote areas. The public questioned the decision makers’ information, calculations and competence, the adequacy of the consequence analyses and whether the decommissioning activities would lead to any real savings. Patient and public safety, the vulnerable in society, and effects on the local areas were important topics. Thus, it seems the decision makers did not fully succeed in communicating the demonstrable benefits or create clarity of the rationales for decommissioning the particular services. Furthermore, it seems the public has a more inclusive approach to health services and their value compared to decision makers that need to keep the budget.

Decommissioning is an emerging field of research, and this study of the unfolding of an urgent and extensive decommissioning program contributes with evidence that may improve decommissioning policy and practice. The study illustrates that it may be possible to implement a decommissioning program despite public protest, but that the longer-term effects on the health system’s legitimacy need to be studied.

In this chapter, I address how criminal justice policies, and discrimination and prejudice within the US criminal justice system, negatively affect trans men. By focusing on trans men’s unique incarceration experiences using 15 in-depth interviews, I recommend four key policy changes for correctional facilities: (1) allow trans men to choose the gender of the correctional facility in which they are housed; (2) allow trans men to wear undergarments that align with their gender identity; (3) provide trans men access to trans-appropriate healthcare; and (4) implement harsher penalties for non-compliance of Prison Rape Elimination Act Standards. These four policies would improve the life chances of trans men during their incarceration and post-incarceration.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate service-oriented architecture organizational studies (SOA OS) in healthcare through a rigorous literature review, development and testing in an eGovernment health-care setting. The application of SOA paradigm to integrate information systems has been pursued mainly by private organizations. However, SOA starts to appear in the public agenda and specifically in health-care reengineering, as well. Recently, government strategies for eHealth have been slowly incorporating the SOA paradigm to integrate isolated systems, provide cost-effective solutions and expand the capabilities of their health-care information system. Yet, literature indicates that eHealth government strategies, including SOA, require the support of SOA OS to be successfully implemented.

To investigate the less acknowledged phenomena like SOA OS in healthcare, the authors incorporate an interpretive, qualitative case study approach to conduct this research. This method will assist in examining the phenomenon in its natural setting, examine the in-depth complexities and health-care processes and provide rich qualitative data during interviews and observations.

The authors critically review the literature and synthesize a SOA OS with specific attributes, sub-elements, guidelines and healthcare-specific parameters. This conceptual structure was tested in the practical arena leading to an evaluated SOA OS blueprint.

As the outcome of the research was based on a single case, the paper concludes that the SOA OS in health-care research needs to broaden its perspective with more empirical data.

This research revealed empirical insights that can help practitioners and researchers focus their attention to the significant role that the SOA OS plays during SOA implementations.

This paper focuses on critical success factors related to SOA implementations in health-care organizations and can be considered as novel as it identifies and structures a SOA OS element that can be part of a SOA governance approach in the area of healthcare.