M.Cur. / Managed healthcare was introduced in South Africa largely in order to control the rampant increase of medical costs, more especially in the private healthcare industry. Managed healthcare is a system of healthcare delivery, which ensures that cost effective quality care is provided to patients without jeopardising the health of the patient. Positive working relationships are necessary among the role players in the provision of cost effective quality care within the managed healthcare context. Role players experience problems in the delivery of healthcare, affecting their working relationships, which in turn affects the quality of care provided to patients. Because managed healthcare is a new concept in South Africa, little is known about the problems. As a result, there are no guidelines for the formulation of a strategy to enhance positive working relationships among the role players within the context of managed healthcare. Understanding the problems experienced by the role players will provide guidelines to the researcher to formulate a strategy to enhance positive working relationships, hence the reseacher sought to explore and describe these problems in the study. The purpose of the study is to formulate a strategy to enhance positive working relationships among the role players within the managed healthcare context in Gauteng. The specific objective is to explore and describe the problems experienced by the role players, as well as the possible solutions within the managed healthcare context in Gauteng. The relevant research questions are: * What are the problems experienced by the role players within the managed healthcare context in Gauteng, and what are the recommended solutions to counteract these problems? * What strategy can be formulated to enhance positive working relationships among the role players within the managed healthcare context in Gauteng? A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was followed to answer the research questions. Focus group interviews and a workshop were conducted to collect data and a content analysis was conducted as described by Tesch (1990). The results were analysed in two phases: the problems experienced and the suggested solutions to counteract these problems. A strategy to enhance positive working realtionships was suggested. The strategy, which is based on role player empowerment, staff development, staff recruitment and selection, use of advanced information technology and standardisation of methods across managed healthcare industry, was derived from a synthesis of solutions suggested by the participants. Guba and Lincoln's (1983:290) principles of trustworthiness were employed by the researcher and the ethical standards as set by DENOSA (1998) were adhered to by the researcher to facilitate the quality of the study. It was recommended that the strategy be implemented and evaluated for its effectiveness by evaluating the quality of working relationships among the role players and that ethical standards be formulated in managed healthcare.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:10135 |
| Date | 12 September 2012 |
| Creators | Mahlo, Shongy Joyce |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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