Organizing for sustainable health care

Health care, as it is currently organized, is not sustainable. Health care systems in the developed world are encountering increased demand for high quality health care but facing societal resource limits. Health care managers, professionals and academics worldwide are debating how to redesign its current organizational configurations and delivery paradigms to deliver more with less, amidst profound changes in demographics, increased cost of new technology and changing health care priorities. Health care is inextricably linked to the overall sustainability of society and it is critical that solutions are found. The chapters in this volume examine health care systems that are building the foundations for sustainable, high quality health care. Case-based analyses discuss substantive organizing changes aimed at operating within resource limitations, while taking advantage of new knowledge and medical advances that could have an unprecedented positive impact on the health of individuals and societies. The volume also explores the change capabilities and learning mechanisms that health care systems need in order to implement fundamental change and continue to improve over time.