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Relationship management can be applied in a variety of fields, but there is perhaps no other field that could benefit more from the application of relationship management than public health. The achievements of public health in the United States over the last century are many, but its challenges are daunting. This paper begins with a review of the mission of public health and the status of public health in this nation, including an examination of the most significant public health challenges. I then describe the complex nature of the public health system and summarize the latest positive development in public health planning. Finally, I outline how relationship management can be implemented in order to help improve public health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal care services are often provided to clients in community settings through highly discretionary processes. Such processes provide little guidance for caseworkers concerning how public resources should be allocated. The results of such processes almost guarantee that individuals with very similar needs will receive very different levels of care resources. Such disparities in treatment open the door to inequity and ineffectiveness. One way to address this problem is through case-mix classification systems that allocate hours of care according to client needs. This paper outlines the preliminary steps taken by one state in its movement toward such a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating health care quality is important for consumers, health care providers, and society. Developing a measure of health care service quality is an important precursor to systems and organizations that value health care quality. SERVQUAL has been proposed as a broad-based measure of service quality that may be applicable to health care settings. Results from a study described in this paper verify SERVQUAL dimensions, but demonstrate additional dimensions that are specific to health care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explore the complexity of challenges facing the public health community in an era increasingly defined by terrorism. The public health and associated political structure in this country has much to do to better coordinate its' efforts in an effective way. Solutions will ultimately come from partnerships between government agencies, community organizations, the business community, and international interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) provides a prescription drug benefit for Medicare-eligible seniors that includes access to medication therapy management services (MTMS) through pharmacists. We theorize that local community pharmacy market competition affects the decision of individual community pharmacies to provide MTMS. Our model suggests that MTMS services are more apt to be supplied in markets at the extremes of community pharmacy concentration (very low and very high). We found that local community pharmacy competition affected the service choices made by the pharmacy decision-makers willing to provide MTMS in a manner consistent with our theory. As a result, patient access to MTMS services depends on both (1) patient access to pharmacies willing to provide MTMS and (2) the level of local community pharmacy competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly the rapid developments by scientists working in the new business sector of biotechnology are being thrust into mainstream news reports. The incredible pace of the creation of neo-knowledge recently leads us to believe there has not been enough time between events for the healthcare sector, the general public, the legislators or the ethicists to reflect and conduct the checks and balances required for thoughtful progress. The decline of the hospital and the emergence of the laboratory as a consequence of the advent of the genomic era signal a profound shift, which will have unprecedented impacts on professionals in the healthcare system and its repercussions will force explicit changes in their education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the topics of the Community Engagement in Health and Human Services Policy symposium of the journal "Highlights." Critical issues related to community engagement; Importance of ensuring that community members receive the support that they need; Ways to encourage active participation of community members with public administrators in health and human services.