People as Care Catalysts : From Being Patient to Becoming Healthy

Health care is one of the fastest growing sectors of world business, with a vast and diverse array of organizations involved in care related activities. But while elsewhere the customer has risen to power, the monolithic care systems of Europe have been left behind. Identical treatment of everyone is a code of honour, politicians are both manager and regulator, and citizens are expected to be passive receivers of expert services. As a result new market solutions are emerging, even in bastions of public provision such as the UK and Sweden. In the US things are increasingly fragmented, despite efforts to introduce `managed care . Driven by these forces, and with a shift of focus from treating illness to promoting wellness, we are about to enter the global `health care economy . Building on a lifetime s work in organizational theory, Richard Normann s final book considers how new health care systems may be created that are equipped to reinvent themselves, and which develop a more co productive relationship between customer and provider. Normann and his collaborators examine how prime mover organizations that build innovative value constellations can become catalysts for change, and make the efficient and effective operation of health care an asset to society instead of a perceived cost burden. Above all they show that if the public system does not take advantage of the new opportunities, others will and the public system will eventually be eliminated.