Management, Organization, and Childbirth: Towards a New Model for the Birth Path

Description

Management, Organization and Childbirth: Towards a New Model for the Birth Path explores the complex topic of the birth path with a multidisciplinary magnifying glass on the paradigms, languages, and tools critical to the organization, management, and clinical science. The work consists of five chapters. The first chapter provides a multidimensional analysis of childbirth. The second chapter presents an organizational analysis that moves in unison with different models of health. The third chapter studies the birth path in organizational and cynical terms by describing it in its core processes. The fourth chapter proposes a study conducted in the Italian context, which identifies some useful determinants for redesigning the birth path. The fifth chapter formulates a proposal for redesigning the birth path based on a new health paradigm. The proposed model offers useful insights for multiple categories of readers. To students of medicine and higher education tracks in healthcare management, it can offer opportunities to raise awareness not only regarding multi-professional practice but also regarding confrontation with complementary disciplines. To practitioners and policy makers, it can provide useful stimuli to promote rational and informed decisions around the childbirth. To researchers studying the health context within different disciplinary domains, the model can offer unexplored research spaces within the new business complex system. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figures Tables Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction References 1. The multidisciplinary nature of childbirth 1.1 Defining aspects and characteristics of the birth path 1.2 Social context: the social determinants and epidemiology of birth path 1.3 Technological context: the tools to support the birth path 1.4 The multidisciplinary debate in the international scenario References 2. The managerial and organizational perspective of healthcare 2.1 Management profiles in healthcare: health paradigms and institutional approaches 2.1.1 Complexity and variability of healthcare 2.1.2 Healthcare reforms and myths 2.2 The organizational perspective of healthcare 2.3 Process management in healthcare 2.4 The organizational approach of patient-centeredness 2.5 Healthcare process redesign and the challenge for the birth path References 3. The birth path as a process: criticalities and cesarean section 3.1 The stages of the birth path 3.2 Preconception care 3.3 Access to the birth path 3.4 Low-risk pregnancy pathway and medium-/high-risk pregnancy pathway 3.5 Labor and delivery 3.6 Puerperium 3.7 Cesarean section and medicalization of pregnancy 3.7.1 Known medical risk factors 3.7.2 Social and demographic factors 3.7.3 Professional practice styles factors 3.7.4 Factors influencing maternal decision-making 3.7.5 Organizational factors 3.7.6 Economic factors 3.7.7 Cultural factors Note References 4. Italian experience in the international context: empirical evidence from two case studies 4.1 Introduction to case studies 4.1.1 The Italian context 4.1.2 Theoretical foundation: the T.R.E.E. model 4.1.3 Data collection 4.1.4 Data analysis 4.1.4.1 Chi-square test - mode of delivery and mode of labor 4.1.4.2 Chi-square test - mode of delivery and professional condition 4.1.4.3 Chi-square test - mode of delivery and maternal age 4.1.4.4 Chi-square test - mode of delivery and title of study 4.1.4.5 Chi-square test - mode of delivery and previous conceptions 4.1.4.6 Independent-samples t-test of mode of delivery and number of cesareans 4.1.4.7 Logistic regression 4.2 Results 4.3 Discussion References 5. Towards a new model for the birth path 5.1 Redesigning the birth path: towards a new model 5.2 Distributed health literacy and empowerment in the birth path 5.3 ICT as a clinical and managerial support tool 5.4 Conclusions and implications for academic literature on healthcare organizations References Index