Managerial Epidemiology for Health Care Organizations » (2nd Edition)

Peter J. Fos, is dean and professor of the College of Health at the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously he was assistant dean and member of the faculty of the Department of Health Services, Tulane University Health Science Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, where he remains an adjunct professor.

David J. Fine is chief executive officer of the St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston, Texas, and former chief executive officer of the University of Alabama (Birmingham) Health Systems. He is concurrently professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, professor of public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and professor of the Practice of Management at Rice University.

Brian W. Amy is Mississippi State Health Officer and head of the Mississippi State Department of Health. He holds faculty positions at the College of Health, The University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Miguel A. Zúniga is associate professor, Department of Health Informatics, School of Allied Health Sciences, Medical College of Georgia. He previously held faculty positions at Tulane University Health Sciences Center and Texas A&M University Health Science Center.

Managerial Epidemiology for Health Care Organizations provides readers with a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the application of epidemiological principles to the delivery of health care services and management of health care organizations. As health administration becomes evidence- and population-based, it becomes critical to understand the impact of disease on populations of people in a service area. This book also addresses the need of health organizations’ to demonstrate emergency preparedness and respond to bioterrorism threats. A follow-up to the standard text in the field, this book introduces core epidemiology principles and clearly illustrates their essential applications in planning, evaluating, and managing health care for populations. This book demonstrates how health care executives can incorporate the practice of epidemiology into their various management functions and is rich with current examples, concepts, and case studies that reinforce the essential theories, methods, and applications of managerial epidemiology.

Written for faculty, students, researchers, and professionals in health care administration and public health practice, this practical resource also includes study questions.

Allen Brinker

This text contains equal parts basic epidemiology and an overview of descriptive statistics for healthcare utilization. As stated, the intention is to introduce the student or healthcare administrator/manager to the notion of healthcare for populations. Healthcare administrators and students are the intended audience. The first section includes a complete primer on epidemiology, with chapters on the current nomenclature and science of health assessment and health economics. The authors should be complimented on the ease at which mathematical statistics are described and outlined using real life examples. All new students of epidemiology can benefit from this section of the text. The second section includes chapters on the assessment of healthcare utilization based on setting of care (ER, hospital-adult, hospital-pediatric, worksite) and the specific needs of the aged. It is, however, a shortcoming that the authors do not explain in substantial detail the pervasive impact poverty and ethnicity maintained in the assessment of health and healthcare utilization and the limitations of observational information in general. The successful implementation of information from controlled studies (evidence-based medicine) into clinical practice remains the challenge for a system whose public perception is that of managed cost and not managed care. The first section is an enjoyable and readable primer on epidemiology. The second section, with chapters on utilization of healthcare, is informative and provides the groundwork for anyone inclined to begin study of healthcare utilization by objective means. The book does not, however, lend itself to the design or redesign of any healthcaresystem. The authors, both of whom have outstanding credentials and experience in this area, should be credited with an excellent, basic textbook, but perhaps an over-reaching title.