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Evidence for Management Decision-making

Evidence for Management Decision-making

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Project Outline

Evidence for Management Decision-making (EMD) is a 24 month study funded by the Service Delivery Organization (SDO) of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It runs from April 1st 2009 – March 2011, and is being conducted by a multidiscipinary team of leading researchers drawn from the IKON (Innovation, Knowledge & Organizational Networks) research centre in Warwick Business School, and Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick.

The research problem

In England, the majority of decisions about the organization and provision of local health services are made by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). PCTs receive a significant proportion of the overall NHS budget which they use to commission health services for their local populations. In this commissioning role they have a responsibility to ensure that healthcare provided to NHS patients is ‘World Class’. However commissioning decisions are very complex. They involve different kinds of experts (including commissioning managers, finance managers, public health experts) and many different criteria (including the evidence of effectiveness of services, the cost of services, the quality of services) all of which have to be carefully weighed up when making these decisions. At the same time, we know that there is a great deal of variation in the ways in which managers in different PCTs actually commission health services.

Within the NHS, and internationally, much thought and effort has gone into producing resources for managers so that they have the knowledge and information they need to commission services effectively. However, what we don't know is how managers actually use this knowledge and information in the commissioning process, and how they combine such resources with their own knowledge and local expertise.

Aims

The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of how, why and when NHS managers make decisions on commissioning. We also want to understand the barriers and facilitators to “evidence-based” management in the NHS. By doing this we hope our findings can be used to improve the way knowledge is used in commissioning and thus help support better treatment for NHS patients.

 

Information about our forthcoming dissemination workshop is available here

A copy of the final report from the project can be obtained at the NETSCC website or as a pdf file (PDF Document)

Project team

Jacky Swan
Professor of Organizational Behaviour & Director of IKON Research Centre
T: +44 (0)24 7652 4271
Jacky dot Swan at wbs dot ac dot uk

Aileen Clarke
Associate Clinical Professor in Public Health & Health Services Research
T: +44 (0)24 7615 0189
Aileen dot Clarke at warwick dot ac dot uk
Health Sciences Research Institute

Davide Nicolini
Assistant Professor and RCUK Research Fellow – IKON
T: +44 (0)24 7652 4282
Davide dot Nicolini at wbs dot ac dot uk

John Powell
Associate Clinical Professor in Epidemiology & Public Health
T: +44 (0)24 7657 4883
John dot Powell at warwick dot ac dot uk
Health Sciences Research Institute

Claudia Roginski
Management Fellow,
Head of Information
Coventry Teaching PCT
T: +44 (0)24 7624 6013
Claudia dot roginski at coventrypct dot nhs dot uk

Emmanouil Gkeredakis
Research Fellow
emmanouil dot gkeredakis at wbs dot ac dot uk
T: +44 (0)24 7652 8237

Harry Scarbrough
Associate Dean for Research
Warwick Business School
harry dot scarbrough at wbs dot ac dot uk
T: +44 (0)24 7652 3840

Contact

To contact the project team please phone or email the Project Administrator, Dawn Coton
T: +44 (0)24 7652 4503
dawn dot coton at wbs dot ac dot uk
IKON Research Centre
Warwick Business School
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL