The surge in capital flows towards emerging market countries is one of the major developments in the world economy in the 1990s. In particular, short-term flows, in the form of portfolio investments or bank loans, have grown at an extremely rapid pace. At the same time, emerging markets have experienced an increasing number of financial crises, with dire consequences. It is increasingly argued ...

Patients with multimorbidity are responsible for more than half of all healthcare utilization, challenging the healthcare budgets of all European nations. Although the European Union is showing signs of a fragile economic recovery, achieving sustainable growth will depend on delivering a combination of fiscal responsibility, structural reforms, and improved efficiency. Addressing the challenges...

U.S. healthcare organizations face unprecedented financial pressures, making it more difficult than ever to maintain the vital re-investment capital required to sustain high levels of care and improve operating efficiency. More than 34% of hospitals reported operating losses for the first half of 2009 and more than 70% of healthcare organizations have slowed down or canceled capital projects as...

BACKGROUND We sought to determine the impact of delays to admission from the Emergency Department (ED) on inpatient length of stay (LOS), and IP cost. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of 13,460 adult (>or= 18 yrs) ED visits between April 1 2006 and March 30 2007 at a tertiary care teaching hospital with two ED sites in which the mode of disposition was admission to ICU, surgery o...

BACKGROUND Launched in 2009, the Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme has emerged as an innovative approach for the improvement of laboratory quality. In order to ensure sustainability, Mozambique embedded the SLMTA programme within the existing Ministry of Health (MOH) laboratory structure. OBJECTIVE This article outlines the steps followed to establish ...

for comments on an earlier draft of the paper, and to the participants of the Economics Seminar at the Stockholm School of Economics for their critical feedback. I also thank the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago and the American Compensation Association for their generous financial support. ABSTRACT The obsession over college prestige and the highly competitive environ...

BACKGROUND While venture funding has been applied to biotechnology and health in high-income countries, it is still nascent in these fields in developing countries, and particularly in Africa. Yet the need for implementing innovative solutions to health challenges is greatest in Africa, with its enormous burden of communicable disease. Issues such as risk, investment opportunities, return on in...

Impact evaluations can be used either to estimate the impact of an ent program or to evaluate the effect of a new product or policy. In either ca the fundamental evaluation question is the same: "How are the lives of t participants different relative to how they would have been had the progra product, service or policy not been implemented?" The first parl of Lr question, how are the lives of t...

Rapid growth in advanced imaging procedures has left hospital radiology departments struggling to keep up with demand, resulting in loss of patients to facilities that can offer service more quickly. While the departments appear to be working at full capacity, an operational analysis of over 400 hospital radiology departments in the US by GE Healthcare has determined that, paradoxically, many d...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to quantify the socioeconomic gap in long term health outcomes after stroke and related health care utilisation, in order to evaluate whether those in need of care do actually receive appropriate levels of care. DESIGN Stroke patients from the lower socioeconomic group were compared with stroke patients from the higher socioeconomic group with respect ...