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Interview with Tony Kovner Author of a new book “The Practice of Evidence-Based Management,” with Richard D’Aquila and David Fine, to be published in 2008 by Health Administration Press Tony Kovner Professor of Health Policy & Management Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service New York University

We commissioned 14 case studies on management interventions in health care organizations using an evidence-based approach. The managers did not follow a rigid template but made significant attempts to properly frame research questions, obtain evidence as to why an intervention might work in various contexts, evaluate evidence with a balance of viewpoints represented, decide whether the intervention could be adapted to their organization, analyze what it took to make the intervention actionable, and consider whether further evidence was needed.

The interventions involved: emergency preparedness, leadership development, the chief learning officer, forming a corporate university, criteria for hospital evacuation, chronic care management, improving pain management, improving health of underserved children, the business case for a hospital palliative unit, state Medicaid management, quality management in home health, inpatient planning, and improved operating room scheduling. The authors and editors of these cases studies believe that managers in these context had better evidence than is customary in considering these management interventions.

Evidence-based management is not widely used by health care managers for the following reasons: first, the business case for return on investment has not yet been reliably made. Second, widespread use would shift power away from senior toward junior managers. Third, hospital boards do not regularly review the quality of the managerial decision-making process. David Fine suggests that in the field of management, unlike clinical medicine, students are not taught to value and depend on studies as physicians are, and in part because of the lower priority, there are fewer studies done.

The new book can be used as a text to teach a capstone course in which teams of 4-5 students work two semesters in teams carrying out a project (often involving a planned management intervention) for a client organization. The materials have already been classroom-tested during Fall 2007 at NYU/Wagner in New York City.

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Book Chapters:

1. On the Practice of Evidence-Based Management
2. The Transformation Toward Evidence-Based Management
3. Theories and Definitions
4. Case Studies of Management Interventions Using an EBMgmt Approach
5. Implications for Management Education and Research
6. Lessons Learned and Summing Up
7. Supplementary Materials

This book is written primarily for master's students as a capstone course (course outline ), and for health care managers with an interest in learning more about evidence-based management.