Healthcare Management
This focus area is led by our two group leaders, Nathalie COMMEIRAS and Marlène BARREDA. The new challenges facing the healthcare sector are as follows: patient pathways and the expansion of outpatient care; changes in how healthcare facilities are funded; evolving professions; interprofessional coordination; and the structuring of healthcare regions. Indeed, the “Ma santé 2022” initiative calls for a restructuring of healthcare delivery. According to the ministry, the healthcare sector is characterized by inequalities in access to care and a desire among professionals to collaborate more effectively with one another. To address these challenges, the Ministry has identified several major initiatives: better directing patients according to their needs; improving the quality and relevance of care; leveraging digital technology to deliver better care; reforming funding to encourage quality and cooperation; adapting training programs and professions to new challenges; and modernizing hospital governance and management.
RESEARCH TOPICS
In line with the government’s “Ma Santé 2022” initiative, over the next four years, MRM’s health division aims to examine—from a management perspective—the reforms and their effects, among other things.
That is why our goals for the coming years are organized around the following four themes:
Medically-Oriented Communication and Behavior: Thisresearch focuses on communication aimed at raising public and patient awareness of the positive and negative effects of certain practices (such as dietary habits). Thus, communication regarding nutrition and obesity/overweight—through nutritional recommendations and public health campaigns—enables citizens to change their behaviors. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to conduct research on measuring patient/resident satisfaction and experience—not only in hospitals but also in follow-up care and rehabilitation (SSR), in long-term care facilities (EHPAD), in home hospitalization (HAD), etc.—to ultimately contribute to the evaluation of these facilities and become an integral part of their funding.
Digital Health: This theme focuses on e-health, the connected patient, the co-development of health solutions for and with citizens, and digital and connected tools that link organizations and patients. By January 1, 2022, every French citizen will have a unique personal account providing access to a personalized service portal, which is intended to be expanded to include features such as a shared medical record, approved health apps, and secure messaging.
Values, Pathways, and Performance Management: While current funding models have been the subject of numerous studies highlighting their unintended consequences, new funding models are emerging. Funding reform is, in fact, one of the major initiatives of the “Ma Santé 2022” plan, with a bold goal: to shift from a system that encourages an increase in procedures and activity to a funding model that incentivizes prevention, supports collaboration among professionals, and reaffirms quality as the primary objective of patient care. We are witnessing the simultaneous emergence of reorganizations, performance measurement, and the establishment of boundaries between facilities. Thus, the concept of value creation and co-creation is a key element for organizations calling for new modes of governance;
Health and Professions: This theme aims to bring together research on quality of life at work, change management, psychosocial risks, transformations in the health professions—including changes in the nature of their work and the tools they use—as well as intra- and interprofessional coordination, the blurring of roles among health professionals, and shifts in power dynamics within and between organizations.
Activities and Publications:
Since February 2011, the group has been working at a steady pace, with more than twenty researchers contributing to the research area’s momentum.
Most of the disciplinary fields within management sciences are represented here through the active participation of MRM researchers: accounting and management control, human resources management, marketing, information systems, etc.
In addition to MRM management researchers, the group includes economists and physicians. Notably, the group welcomes researchers from a medical research laboratory and the Department of Medical Information at the Montpellier University Hospital (CHRU). Thus, the cross-cutting health research theme is part of a transdisciplinary dialogue within and around the management sciences, focusing on contemporary health issues and challenges.
Close ties have been established with the Montpellier Center for Health Law, particularly in connection with research on obesity. The health group works closely with biology and health research laboratories, as well as with the Research Department of the Montpellier University Hospital (CHRU).
This commitment to becoming an integral part of a regional competitiveness cluster is leading researchers in the health research area to forge closer ties with local economic and social stakeholders. To that end, a close collaboration with the Medical Information Department of the Montpellier University Hospital (CRHU) is already underway, taking the form of participation in joint research meetings. Collaborations with the Regional Health Agency are currently being established.