Table 1 Organizational changes to improve patient care
- Revision of professional roles: Change of tasks and responsibilities of health professionals, such as increased medical roles to nurses and enlarging the roles of pharmacists. |
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- Multidisciplinary teams: Clinical teams or collaborations of physicians, nurses and allied health professionals to improve professional performance and patient outcomes. |
- Integrated care services: Organized systems for care delivery (also labeled as disease management programs or integrated care pathways) to patients with specific diseases, who receive care according to a protocol, which covers the spectrum from screening to education, treatment and monitoring. Case management overlaps with disease management and has been included in the category. |
- Knowledge management: Knowledge management is the optimal organization of knowledge within an organization. In practice, it mainly refers to the use of information and communication technology to support patient care, such as computerized medical record keeping. |
- Quality management: A management approach, which focuses on customers, continuous efforts to improve, measurement and analysis of performance, and supportive leadership and organizational culture. Various approaches, such as total quality management, continuous quality improvement, and business redesign are included in this category. |