Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37570416›Full record

ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2023

Efficiency Improvement Strategies for Public Health Systems: Developing and Evaluating a Taxonomy in the Australian Healthcare System.

James Kenneth Walters, Anurag Sharma, Reema Harrison

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

James Kenneth WaltersNSW Ministry of Health, Level 9, 1 Reserve Rd, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia.
Anurag SharmaSchool of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Kensington Campus, Level 2, Samuels Building (F25), Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-7570-852X
Reema HarrisonCentre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Level 6, 75 Talavera Road, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionAs demand for healthcare continues to grow, public health systems are increasingly required to drive efficiency improvement (EI) to address public service funding challenges. Despite this requirement, evidence of EI strategies that have been successful applied at the whole-of-system level is limited. This study reports the development, implementation and evaluation of a novel taxonomy of EI strategies used in public health systems to inform systemwide EI models. MATERIALS AND

methodsThe public health system in New South Wales, Australia, operates a centralised EI model statewide and was the setting for this study. An audit of EI strategies implemented in the NSW Health system between July 2016 and June 2019 was used to identify all available EI strategies within the study timeframe. A content management approach was applied to audit the strategies, with each strategy coded to an EI focus area. Codes were clustered according to similarity, and category names were assigned to each cluster to form a preliminary taxonomy. Each category was defined and examples were provided. The resulting taxonomy was distributed and evaluated by user feedback survey and pre-post study to assess the impact on EI strategy distribution.

resultsA total of 1127 EI strategies were identified and coded into 263 unique strategies, which were clustered into nine categories to form the taxonomy of EI strategies. Categories included the following: non-clinical contracts and supplies; avoided and preventable activity; clinical service delivery and patient outcomes; finance and operations; recruitment, vacancies and FTE; staffing models; leave management; staff engagement and development; premium staffing; and clinical contracts and supplies. Evaluative findings revealed a perceived reduction in the duplication of EI work, improved access to EI knowledge and improved engagement with EI processes when using the taxonomy. The taxonomy was also associated with wider use of EI strategies.

conclusionsWhole-of-system EI is an increasing requirement. Using a taxonomy to guide systemwide practice appears to be advanta-geous in reducing duplication and guiding practice, with implications for use in health systems internationally.

Indexed as

efficiencyhealth managementpublic health

Identifiers

PMID37570416
PMCPMC10419221

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