Nursing Systems, Hospitals & Policy The Unit

The health care system in the United States can be described in terms of systems thinking. Systems concepts are an important aspect of organization and management theory. The thinking attempts to recognize patterns of behavior or problems that repeat themselves regardless of the setting (Tonges & Madden, 1993, pp. 39-44).

It was Chester Barnard (cited in Kast & Rosenzweig, n.g., pp. 60-71) who used a basic systems framework to define the term, organization (Kast & Rosenzweig, n.g., pp. 60-71). According to his definition, an organization is "a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons" (Kreitner & Kinicki, 1992, pp. 633-657). Hence, a system may consist of "physical, biological, personal, and social components" (Kast & Rosenzweig, n.g., pp. 60-71). These different aspects, however, must be in a "specific systematic relationship" for the purpo

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untry, health care organizations are regrouping to form "integrated delivery networks" (Prybil, Golden, & Ballance, 1995, pp. 34-37). These networks are characterized by close linkages among physicians, hospitals, and other providers. They offer a comprehensive array of vertically and horizontally integrated services. Moreover, these services are often provided to large population groups (Prybil et al., 1995, pp. 34-37). For example, senior citizens are increasingly being targeted by managed-care organizations (Kertesz, 1995, pp. 76-84). One integral aspect of these reforms is the concept of managed competition. This strategy essentially involves the introduction of price competition (Buerhaus, 1994, pp. 10-17). Strong economic incentives are being created to encourage health care providers to operate in the most cost-effective and realistic manner possible (Wilson, 1993, pp. 11-16). While managed competition may result in lower overall health care costs, it does have certain drawbacks. For example, prepaid health care providers might "try to bias the selection of those seeking to enroll in their health care plan" (Buerhaus, 1994, pp. 10-17). Obviously, they would only want to accept the healthiest, least costly ap
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4156
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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