Robert J. Parsons

Assessing the Community Economic Impact of Nongovernmental Development Organizations

Nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) ultimately measure their success by the impact they have on their beneficiaries, their families, and the communities in which they live. One potentially important piece to the NGDO impact puzzle, yet to be addressed in the literature, is the so-called community economic impact, defined here as the direct and induced impact of the NGDO on local economic activity. This article demonstrates how a community economic impact might be estimated using a program of Project Hope—an international health care NGDO—in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Integral to estimating a community economic impact is the calculation of the relevant regional income multiplier. This article also demonstrates how a regional income multiplier might be estimated for Santo Domingo using the minimum requirements approach developed by Ullman and Dacey. It is hoped that this article will encourage and help other researchers incorporate community economic impact into future analyses of NGDO programs.

The New Nurse Executive ; An Emerging Role

In recent years, the muse executive (NK) lias become an integral part of the hospital administrative team. The position lias taken on a higher profile, and many questions are surfacing about every facet of NK administration. Since 1991, the literature is replete with articles discussing the new NK role. This article is a review summary and consolidation of 19 recently published articles, selected from a much broader list of periodical articles. It also reflects the results of six focus groups with hospital administrators and NEs in both urban and rural healthcare delivery settings. The summary pinpoints attributes identified as essential to an NK and those areas in which more research is needed. It also discloses that to function effectively, the new NK must have flexible and action-oriented personality qualities, possess executive level business management skills, have completed some graduate level degree work, and be an expert on clinical affairs. Future research should concentrate on the diverse educational needs of NKs and how to best meet those needs.

Hospital administrators' career paths: which way to the top?

This article examines career paths of aspirants to hospital administrator positions. It focuses on successful career objectives, barriers, and paths. The 1994 survey data from 162 hospital-employed executive track personnel in a western state facilitate comparisons with nonaspirants. Only 34 (21 percent) self-reported a goal to become an administrator. Aspirants require institutional and mentor support, and need to follow more proactive and diverse career paths than they have done previously.

The nursing shortage. Implications for military nurses.

Trends relative to nursing vacancies are expected to exist into the next decade. Unlike the cyclical shortages of the past, this shortage may not resolve itself. The authors present five major factors in nursing that have led to the shortage and that contribute to its continuation. Because military nurses provide much manpower in the healthcare industry, shortages in their ranks will affect the entire healthcare system. The five factors were applied to the military nursing force to demonstrate that the military also feels the pinch of the current nursing shortage.

Job satisfaction of selected categories of Utah hospital managers.

In a survey of managers in Utah hospitals, 85 percent responded overall satisfaction with their jobs. Surprisingly, women in the survey reported significantly greater satisfaction with their jobs than other respondents.

Trends in rural healthcare delivery in the United States, 1990-1999.

ABSTRACT This article describes the results of a literature search of pertinent professional literature written on issues important to rural healthcare delivery in the United States. The purpose of the literature review was to provide journal articles to practicing rural healthcare leaders who, because of time and economic constraints, claimed they were unable to research their own relevant journal articles. The authoring team is composed of individuals who work as full-time faculty members at institutions that offer courses in health administration. Because the nature of their professional work and research dictates that they focus on areas of rural health, the authoring team offered to share their findings with rural administrators as a means to assist them. The intent was to form a working collaboration between health services management professionals in academia, representatives of the states healthcare organizational affiliate associations, and professionals practicing in the industry. This ten-year collaboration resulted in a unique wedding of resources that helped both in the delivery of rural healthcare services in a western state and in the advancement of the field of health services administration through original research. Thus, the product of this literature search is a comprehensive study of the trends in rural healthcare delivery. The variety of topics discussed were gleaned from over 500 articles found in and summarized from 70 professional healthcare journals published between 1990 and 1999.

Claim your spot at the executive level.: Room at the Top?

&NA; Nurse executives have joined hospital administrative teams, but are they accepted as fully integrated team executives? Learn how nurse executives and their influential colleagues view integration and its influences.

Eine Zeitreihenanalyse der Gesundheitsausgaben in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Kanada

Dieser Artikel beruht auf einer Zeitreihenanalyse der Determinanten der nationalen Gesundheitsausgaben in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Kanada. Die Resultate scheinen zu bestatigen, daβ die folgenden Variablen positiv signifikant mit den nationalen Gesundheitsausgaben assoziiert sind: (1) Volkseinkommen, (2) Systemuberanspruchung gemessen in Arztebesuchen, (3) der Anteil der 65jahrigen und daruber an der Gesamtbevolkerung, (4) angebotsinduzierte Nachfrage (insbesondere das Verhaltnis Arzte zu Bevolkerung in den USA und Kanada und das Betten-pro-Kopf- Verhaltnis in Deutschland) und (5) die Intensitat der Versorgung gemessen an Krankenhauspersonal pro belegtem Krankenbett. Die Resultate scheinen auch die Existenz von negativen Preiselastizitdten fur die Gesundheitsversorgung in jedem der drei Lander zu bestatigen. Ferner scheinen die Resultate dieser Studie das Argument, daβ eine starkere Beteiligung des offentlichen Sektors im Gesundheitssystem notwendigerweise zu hoheren Gesundheitsausgaben fuhrt, im Falle der USA und Kanada nicht zu bestatigen. Im Gegensatz dazu hat die offentliche Gesundheitsversorgung und Finanzierung in Deutschland offensichtlich einen signifikanten Aufwartsdruck auf die Gesundheitsausgaben ausgeubt.This paper is a time-series analysis of the determinants of national health care expenditures in the United States, Germany, and Canada. The findings tend to confirm that the following are significantly and positively associated with national health care expenditures across the three countries in the study: (1) national income; (2) system overutilization, as measured by physician visits; (3) the share of the population aged sixty-five or older; (4) supplier-induced demand (specifically the physician-to-population ratio in the U.S. and Canada and the bed-to-population ratio in Germany); and (5) the intensity of care, as measured by hospital staff per occupied bed. The findings also tend to confirm the existence of negative price elasticities for health care in each of the three countries. Moreover, the results of this study do not support the argument that greater public sector participation in the health care system necessarily leads to higher levels of health care spending in the case of the U.S. and Canada. In Germany, however, state health care provision and financing have apparently exerted significant upward pressure on health care expenditure levels.ZusammenfassungDieser Artikel beruht auf einer Zeitreihenanalyse der Determinanten der nationalen Gesundheitsausgaben in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Kanada. Die Resultate scheinen zu bestätigen, daβ die folgenden Variablen positiv signifikant mit den nationalen Gesundheitsausgaben assoziiert sind: (1) Volkseinkommen, (2) Systemüberanspruchung gemessen in Ärztebesuchen, (3) der Anteil der 65jährigen und darüber an der Gesamtbevölkerung, (4) angebotsinduzierte Nachfrage (insbesondere das Verhältnis Ärzte zu Bevölkerung in den USA und Kanada und das Betten-pro-Kopf- Verhältnis in Deutschland) und (5) die Intensität der Versorgung gemessen an Krankenhauspersonal pro belegtem Krankenbett. Die Resultate scheinen auch die Existenz von negativen Preiselastizitdten für die Gesundheitsversorgung in jedem der drei Länder zu bestätigen. Ferner scheinen die Resultate dieser Studie das Argument, daβ eine stärkere Beteiligung des öffentlichen Sektors im Gesundheitssystem notwendigerweise zu höheren Gesundheitsausgaben führt, im Falle der USA und Kanada nicht zu bestätigen. Im Gegensatz dazu hat die öffentliche Gesundheitsversorgung und Finanzierung in Deutschland offensichtlich einen signifikanten Aufwärtsdruck auf die Gesundheitsausgaben ausgeübt.