International health care management: Investigating best practices around the globe

Abstract

During the 20th century, international health care management has not been a coherent field of study for health care management scholars. Economists, epidemiologists, health service researchers, medical sociologists, political scientists, and public health researchers have all examined international health care. Depending upon their disciplinary focus, scholars have examined health care system structures, costs, and benefits; studied health care inputs and outcomes; focused on political processes and government regulations of health care services; and looked at how health services are organized and financed. Our goal in this chapter is to use existing research in the area of international health care management to identify needed and potentially fruitful areas of future research. We believe international health care management research is especially important because sectors of the health care industry have and are undergoing various phases within the internationalization process. Admittedly, the international market for health care products and services has many imperfections, including regulatory and industry-imposed barriers (Enthoven, 1988), perverse incentives that encourage cartels or oligopolies (Schut, 1992, 1995), and system contradictions (Giddens, 1979; Tuohy, 1999) that often produce unintended cross-subsidies and other undesired results. However, there are several signals that the international market for health care goods and services is moving toward more openness. First, recent