Health care system has suffered from poor management from the beginning, yet the traditional management text books offer little help by focusing on management for sales and profits which are totally foreign to the medical environment. The books usually deal with the business problems whereas the medical care system is a bureaucracy and should be understood as such.
In this book, the author refocuses traditional management information in the form of material which will be of use to the medical community. There is no discussion of sales, markets, profit and loss, etc. in the traditional sense. Each discussion has been based on medical and hospital procedure and the activity of the health care system.
The book looks closely on topics such as standards, controls, and feedback because these are subjects which are not often well-understood and which often make the difference between success and failure in management. The author has also treated the subject of planning in greater detail because this is such a vital element of the medical system.
Because the same references often apply to many areas of discussion, the author has deliberately cited the reference once and provide an extensive bibliography of general references. Each reference is selected to deal with the topic in general rather than with individual ideas.
About the Author: Dr J. H. U. Brown has been a researcher, teacher, and administrator in the health profession for most of his life. After a period of teaching in medical schools (University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Emory University, Atlanta), he became Acting Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and then Deputy Associate Administrator of the Health Services and Mental Health Administration dealing with the impact of technology on health services and the development of new technology. During this period, he participated with NASA in the development of the Linc-8 computer, launching of the ATS-6 technology satellite, and in the development of the technology based communication and health delivery system for the Indian Health Service.
Dr Brown received his B.S. from Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, where he has been declared a Most Distinguished Alumnus and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., in biochemistry and physiology.
He was responsible for the development of the biomedical engineering research and training program at NIH and was the founder and president of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Dr. Brown has received many honours. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE and the AAAS, a Fulbright Scholar, and the holder of several prestigious fellowships.
During the course of his career, Dr. Brown has published more than 120 papers and some 20 books in the area of medical research and health care delivery. He has invented several devices for medical research.
