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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the quality of management practices of public hospitals in the Australian healthcare system, specifically those in the state-managed health systems of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). Further, the authors assess the management practices of Queensland and NSW public hospitals jointly and globally benchmark against those in the health systems of seven other countries, namely, USA, UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.

In this study, the authors adapt the unique and globally deployed Bloom et al. (2009) survey instrument that uses a “double blind, double scored” methodology and an interview-based scoring grid to measure and internationally benchmark the management practices in Queensland and NSW public hospitals based on 21 management dimensions across four broad areas of management – operations, performance monitoring, targets and people management.

The findings reveal the areas of strength and potential areas of improvement in the Queensland and NSW Health hospital management practices when compared with public hospitals in seven countries, namely, USA, UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy and Canada. Together, Queensland and NSW Health hospitals perform best in operations management followed by performance monitoring. While target management presents scope for improvement, people management is the sphere where these Australian hospitals lag the most.

This paper is of interest to both hospital administrators and health care policy-makers aiming to lift management quality at the hospital level as well as at the institutional level, as a vehicle to consistently deliver sustainable high-quality health services.

This study provides the first internationally comparable robust measure of management capability in Australian public hospitals, where hospitals are run independently by the state-run healthcare systems. Additionally, this research study contributes to the empirical evidence base on the quality of management practices in the Australian public healthcare systems of Queensland and NSW.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the efficiency of ISO 9001-certified public healthcare center in Jakarta, Indonesia and examine the impact of “re-certification“ on the efficiency.

The sample of the research is 30 ISO 9001-certified district public healthcare centers in Jakarta. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Man–Whitney U test were applied.

The research result showed that there is a variation in efficiency values of ISO 9001-certified public healthcare centers that this research studied. There are only 23 percent of the public healthcare centers that can be categorized as the technically efficient public healthcare center. Furthermore, this research also found that there are no significant efficiency value differences among the groups of public healthcare center based on the number of “re-certification” the center experienced.

This research only involved ISO 9001-certified public healthcare center from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Registering ISO 9001 for the public healthcare center does not guarantee that the public healthcare center will have better efficiency. The government and the public healthcare center management should ensure that the ISO 9001 implementation method used by the public healthcare center is appropriate for improving the efficiency of the public healthcare center.

There is a lack of research that studied the efficiency of ISO 9001-certified public healthcare center. Furthermore, there is no research that investigates the effect of “re-certification“ on efficiency. This research fulfills the literature gaps.

The aim of this paper is to analyse how technological innovations in performance measurement systems make it possible to overcome some of the challenges that public healthcare organizations face where management and control are concerned. The changes that could be applied to the performance measurement system of healthcare organisations were analysed together with an evaluation of the responses developed in order to achieve these changes.

The paper contains an in-depth case-study of a public university hospital which utilises an innovative information system.

The case-study highlights how technological innovations in performance measurement systems impact the management and monitoring information system in a public university hospital, through the implementation of a multidimensional management dashboard.

The limitation of this paper is that only one case-study is analysed, albeit in depth, while it would be interesting to consider more public university hospitals.

The paper highlights the fundamental role of middle management in change processes in the healthcare sector.

The case-study highlights how critical the active involvement of middle management is in performance measurement and management, and how this is achieved thanks to the adoption of a simple, clear method which ensures comprehensible communication of the objectives, as well as the measurement of performance by means of radar plots.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and establish key performance indicators that could be considered towards improving the delivery of waste management (WM) services in public hospitals.

An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted for this study. This involved two phases of data collection and analysis. Specifically, interviews in selected case studies hospitals and a general questionnaire survey. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to model the relationships among the performance variables. An expanded balanced scorecard typology was used to categorize performance variables.

The results demonstrate that quality and internal business strategic indicators have a significant influence on WM performance. By implication, public hospital managers would be well advised to invest resources in improving internal business operations, learning and growths, as well as prioritizing finance in the process of managing healthcare waste.

The developed WM structural model can be used to identify performance indicators that can be incorporated into public hospitals’ WM strategy to improve performance leading to a decent healthcare environment.

The majority of studies have centered on the knowledge and practices of healthcare WM. This study extends the knowledge of healthcare WM literature from the perspective of FM performance measurement. The developed model of the study is invaluable to many developing countries that are faced with the challenge of improving WM practices.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the competences needed for managing competitive bidding in the Finnish healthcare and to understand the management of competitive bidding holistically, considering the challenges the management faces from being embedded in focal nets and the wider network.

The phenomenon is examined from the perspective of networks. This focus acknowledges the fact that competitive bidding changes the dynamics of the network and therefore requires new competences from the actors. The study applies qualitative methods.

Competitive bidding connects effects, interests, resources and actors together. It changes the dynamics of the net and the network. Thus, new competences are required. Three major competence areas were detected: relationship management competences, net management competences and purchasing competences.

The conclusions shed light on the combination of competences needed in managing competitive bidding in healthcare networks.

Globally, several studies have shown that hospital building is charged with multiple inherent risks because a large number of users are vulnerable in tragic events. Thus, the need for the fire safety management plan (FSMP) has been proved as an instrument to mitigate fire and related risks in healthcare facilities. In Malaysia, FSMP regarding public healthcare building is yet to be explored in-depth. Therefore, this paper explores the information necessary to develop the FSMP framework for public hospital buildings.

The paper’s objectives were accomplished via a combination of five face-to-face interviews and observations of five selected public hospitals in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. The five key participants were across the five public hospitals and collated data analysed through thematic analysis with the assistance of MAXQDA 2018.

Findings show that fire safety stakeholders practice system, fire safety action plan and fire risk management were the three main variables that promote fire safety programme and will improve FSMP for Malaysia’s public hospital buildings.

This paper’s data collection is limited to Penang, Malaysia, and a qualitative research approach was used, but this does not deteriorate the strength of the findings. Future studies are needed to consider validating findings from this paper via a quantitative approach.

The suggested framework can be employed by Malaysia’s public hospital authorities as a guideline to mitigate fire hazards in the country’s healthcare facilities.

This paper is encouraging hospital operators and other key stakeholders to improve on their FSMP for healthcare buildings across Malaysia as part of the study implications.

Recently, the relationship between gender representation and organizational performance has been the focus of various studies. However, some research gaps still exist. First, in the healthcare sector, this relationship has been poorly explored. Moreover, in public management studies, researchers focusing on performance tend to focus exclusively on gender differences at the top and/or middle management level. This research aims at exploring the relationship between women's representation and performance in public hospitals at all organizational levels.

To achieve the research objective, 63 healthcare organisations were analysed through ordinary least squares regressions on panel data from 2012 to 2018.

Results show that, in the hospital setting, gender diversity and financial performance are related at every organizational level.

To the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies focusing on the link between gender and performance at every level of professional and employment category; avoiding focusing exclusively on top management, which was the case in previous studies on the topic. Moreover, it contributes to a poorly explored literature which is gender studies in public healthcare management.

The purpose of this paper is to define a new conceptual framework or model, to measure and manage organizational performance, both financial/non-financial and intellectual capital (IC), in a healthcare organization.

The integrated new model is produced by integrating the common assessment framework (CAF) model with two other frameworks representing the IC and leadership. These already existing models are originated, respectively by the Health Agency of Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) and the National Healthcare System (NHS – UK). The integration phase is operated by comparing the CAF and IC models so as to assess the determinant factors that are present in both frameworks and eliminating such redundancies. Concerning the leadership determinant factor, the relevant conceptual framework of CAF model is substituted by the new leadership model proposed by the NHS.

A new integrated model is made available for a subsequent step of empirical implementation and validation through its application in a healthcare organization. The main advantage of this model is the ability to measure and manage IC and financial/non-financial performance. Moreover, the use of a single measurement system facilitates the interpretation and coherency assessment of measured data so originated.

The added value this work provides will enrich the academic literature regarding performance measurement systems in healthcare organizations, also providing an original integrated model that is able to exhibit the advantages highlighted above.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how far plans to “modernize” hospital management in China are converging toward a global model of new public management (NPM) or represent a distinctive pathway.

This paper draws on a systematic review of available secondary sources published in English and Chinese to describe both the nature and trajectory of hospital management reforms in China.

In China, while public hospital reforms bear many of the hallmarks of the NPM, they are distinctive in two key respects. First, the thrust of current reforms is to partially reverse, not extend, the trend toward marketization in order to strengthen the public orientation of public hospitals. Second is a marked gap between the rhetoric and reality of empowering managers and freeing them from political control.

This paper develops a framework for understanding the drivers and obstacles to hospital management reforms in China that is useful for managers, clinicians and policy makers.

In China, few authors have considered NPM reform in relation to healthcare. This paper contributes in better understanding current reforms taking place in China’s expanding healthcare sector and locates these within broader theoretical and policy debates.

Performance Management (PM) processes have become a potent part of strategic and service quality decisions in healthcare organisations. In 2005, the management of public healthcare in Ireland was amalgamated into a single integrated management body, named the Health Service Executive (HSE). Since then, the HSE has come up with a range of strategies for healthcare developments and reforms, and has developed a PM system as part of its strategic planning. The purpose of this paper is to review the application of PM in the Irish Healthcare system, with a particular focus on Irish Hospitals and Emergency Services.

An extensive review of relevant HSE’s publications from 2005 to 2013 is conducted. Studies of the relevant literature related to the application of PM and of international best practices in healthcare performance systems are also presented.

PM and performance measurement systems used by the HSE include many performance reports designed to monitor performance trends and strategic goals. Issues in the current PM system include inconsistency of measures and performance reporting, unclear strategy alignment, and deficiencies in reporting (e.g. feedback and corrective actions). Furthermore, PM processes have not been linked adequately into Irish public hospitals’ management systems.

The HSE delivers several services such as mental health, social inclusion, etc. This study focuses on the HSE’s PM framework, with a particular interest in acute hospitals and emergency services.

This is the first comprehensive review of Irish healthcare PM since the introduction of the HSE. A critical analysis of the HSE reports identifies the shortcomings in its current PM system.