System wide health reform has become the norm across the globe, forcing health care delivery organizations to critically examine the ways in which they are structured and operate on a day to day basis. Resource scarcity has become common while at the same time, quality and clinical outcomes become the basis upon which these organizations are measured and compared with one another. This volume of "Advances in Health Care Management" includes contributions from key academic thought leaders from around the world who critically examine how health reform impacts the macro, meso and micro level...

Dramatic changes to the structure of health systems since the 1980s has seen the development of large, integrated health organizations designed to provide scale and scope advantages, improve the quality of care and health outcomes, and provide greater bargaining power relative to payers and large employers. This transition has led to greater interest in understanding hospitals and health systems as complex systems. Two important themes emerged from this effort: 1. Creation and organization of physician-health organizations, and alignment of these organizations with hospital or system...