Editorial.(Editorial)

Healthcare management is a forum for both the old and the new. We inject modern technology to revive an aging service line. We demystify innovative processes with tried-and-true implementation steps. This issue is evidence that the interplay between the old and the new is alive and thriving in this field.

People first. That is the foundation of Andrea Price's leadership, as detailed in our interview. Ms. Price, named to Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Minority Executives in 2008, embodies the spirit of healthcare management: She welcomes challenges, plans and participates in solutions, and views other people's needs as her priority.

Two columns--Physician Relations and Trends--are introduced in this issue and will run throughout the year. In Physician Relations, columnist Ken Cohn articulates some of the fundamental differences between physicians and administrators. In Trends, contributor Michael LaPenna highlights the consumer-driven developments in the marketplace. Both columns offer strategies for responding to challenges and seizing opportunities.

What can the board do to influence quality of care? Apparently plenty, according to research by Joanna Jiang and colleagues. In this article, the authors lay out board practices that enhance patient safety efforts and lower mortality rates. The article by Kelly Dunham, Dianne Singer, and Gary Freed sheds light on the physician privileging standards of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). This research reveals that almost half of the freestanding ASCs that participated in the study do not require their surgeons and specialists to be board certified.

Market share data are a fundamental element of strategic planning. Often, however, current data are not readily available or are incomplete. With that in mind, researchers Bita Kash, Robert Ohsfeldt, and Larry Gamm set out to develop a model for forecasting market share in the absence of new information. The successes of eight healthcare recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige Award are documented in John Griffith's article. Using the Baldrige criteria as a framework, the author dissects these organizations' winning approaches to culture, performance measurement, and workforce empowerment, among other areas.

Beginning in this issue, abstracts of studies presented to the healthcare division of the Academy of Management will be published. This feature, along with all of our offerings, supports JHM's mission to disseminate research that is relevant and applicable to the work of practicing managers.

Happy 2009!

Kyle L. Grazier, DrPH

Editor

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