TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating Healthcare Reform
T2 - The Challenge of Evaluating Changing Policy Environments
AU - van Eyk, Helen
AU - Baum, Frances
AU - Blandford, John
PY - 2001/10/1
Y1 - 2001/10/1
N2 - Evaluators in the health sector struggle to develop effective mechanisms with which to evaluate healthcare reform programmes. Evaluation of these programmes is difficult because they are entangled in complex, inherently political processes and often shift away from their original aims and objectives as a result of policy changes within the health system. This article describes the evaluation of a healthcare reform process occurring in South Australia and discusses some of the methodological challenges encountered in evaluating a case study of continuous change with shifting policy objectives. It describes how the evaluators have attempted to address these challenges through a flexible and dynamic action-research approach. The article concludes by discussing the role of the evaluator, as intelligent observer, in reflecting on and documenting change in the highly political and complex field of healthcare reform.
AB - Evaluators in the health sector struggle to develop effective mechanisms with which to evaluate healthcare reform programmes. Evaluation of these programmes is difficult because they are entangled in complex, inherently political processes and often shift away from their original aims and objectives as a result of policy changes within the health system. This article describes the evaluation of a healthcare reform process occurring in South Australia and discusses some of the methodological challenges encountered in evaluating a case study of continuous change with shifting policy objectives. It describes how the evaluators have attempted to address these challenges through a flexible and dynamic action-research approach. The article concludes by discussing the role of the evaluator, as intelligent observer, in reflecting on and documenting change in the highly political and complex field of healthcare reform.
U2 - 10.1177/13563890122209856
DO - 10.1177/13563890122209856
M3 - Article
VL - 7
SP - 487
EP - 503
JO - Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice
JF - Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice
SN - 1356-3890
IS - 4
ER -