Towards an evidence based health care management

Abstract

Inspired by the development of Evidence Based Medicine, this article introduces a new approach for health care management called Evidence Based Management. This approach promises to improve the practice of health care management, at the same time as it may stimulate research on the organization and management of health care. Evidence Based Management means that health care managers should learn to search for and critically appraise evidence from management research as a basis for their practice. This will require some new managerial skills that should be included in the education and training of health care managers. It will also require a new orientation for research on health care management. There will be a demand for more applied research, and also for research with a more positivist orientation.