The new frontier of strategic alliances in health care: New partnerships under accountable care organizations

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) and similar reforms aim to improve coordination between health care providers; however, due to the fragmented nature of the US health care system, successful cordination will hinge in large part on the ability of health care organizations to successfully partner across organizational boundaries. This article findings suggests that the success of the ACO model will hinge in large part upon the success of new partnerships, with important implications for understanding ACO readiness and capabilities, the relatively small savings achieved to date by ACO programs, and the path to providers bearing more risk for population health management. 

Perceived mHealth barriers and benefits for home-based HIV testing and counseling and other care: Qualitative findings from health officials, community health workers, and persons living with HIV in South Africa

mHealth has been proposed to address inefficiencies in the current South African healthcare system, including home-based HIV testing and counseling (HTC) programs. Yet wide-scale adoption of mHealth has not occurred. Even as infrastructure barriers decrease, a need to better understand perceived adoption barriers by skateholders remains. 

Costs of implementing integrated community case management (iCCM) in six African countries: implications for sustainability

Sub-Saharan Africa still reports the highest rates of under-five mortality. Low cost, high impact interventions exist, however poor access remains a challenge. Integrated community case management (iCCM) was introduce to improve access to essential services for children 2-59 months through diagnosis, treatment and referral services by community health workers for malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. 

This paper presents the results of an economic analysis of iCCM implementation in regions supported by UNICEF in six countries and assesses country-level sclae-up implications. The paper focuses on costs to provider (healht system andd donors) to inform planning and budgeting, and does not cover cost-effectiveness. 

A new paradigm on health care accountability to improve the quality of the system: four parameters to achieve individual and collective accountability

Healthcare systems the world over are facing significant financial pressures and growing demands for services. Many nations have therefore set common goal of improving the population´s health, the quality of the outcomes, and the containment of costs. So, these changes in the health care systems´priorities have set the ground for an interdisciplinary approach necessary to assess the activities of health care professionals and, in general, of health care systems. 

Centers of excellence in healthcare institutions: what they are and how to assemble them

Centers of excellence-specialized programs within healthcare institutions which supply exceptionally high concentrations of expertise and related resources centered on particular medical areas and delivered in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary fashion-afford many advantages for healthcare providers and the populations they serve. To achieve full value from centers of excellence, proper assembly is an absolute necessity, but guidance is somewhat limited. This effectively forces healthcare providers to pursue establishment largely via trial-and-error, diminishing opportunities for success. 

Advancing team-based primary health care: a comparative analysis of policies in western Canada

The article analyzed and compared primary health care (PHC) policies in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to understand how they inform the design and implementation of team-based primary health care service delivery. The goal was to develop policy imperatives that can advance team-based PHC in Canada. 

Health assessments for health governance—concepts and methodologies

For better supporting science-governance interface, the potential of health assessments appear underrated. The aims of this article is to identify what various types of health assessment have in common; how they differ, which assessments to apply for which purpose; and what needs and options there are for future joint development. 

The Impact of Primary Care Practice Transformation on Cost, Quality, and Utilization

The Impact of Primary Care Practice Transformation on Cost, Quality, and Utilization reviews PCMH results from 45 peer-reviewed reports and additional government and state evaluations. Implementation of the PCMH and high performing primary care differs depending upon the needs and preferences of those delivering, receiving, and paying for related care. 

The sixth annual PCPCC report, authored by the Robert Graham Center of the American Academy of Family Physicians and published with support from the Milbank Memorial Fund, employed broader search terms and more rigorous search criteria that evaluated studies, reports, and evaluations published between November 1, 2015 to February 28 ...

What do we mean when we talk about the Triple Aim? A systematic review of evolving definitions and adaptations of the framework at the health system level

Notwithstanding important contributions of the Triple Aim, uncristal enthusiasm regarding the implications of the framework may be leading to  inconsistent use, particularly when apploed at the health system level, which goes beyond he original positioning of the framework as a strategic organizing principle to guide improvement initiatives at the organizational or local community level. This article identified uses of the Triple Aim that extended beyond its original intention to focus on uses at the whole health system level, to assess convergence and divergence with the original definition. They also attempted to identify consistencies in the way the Triple Aim was ...

The Vanguard of Community-based Integrated Care in Japan: The Effect of a Rural Town on National Policy

Japan has the largest percentage of elderly people in the world. In 2012 the government implemented a community-based integrated care system which provides seamless community helahtcare resources for elderly people with chronic diseases and disabilities. This paper explains the establishment and outcomes of Japan´s first community-based integrated care system in the rural town because the history of Mitsugi could inform policy making in other countries with aging populations.