Table of Contents

What is evaluation?
Evaluation purpose, theory and perspectives
Six designs
Seven case examples of evaluations
Experimental evaluations
Economic evaluations
Developmental evaluations
Managerial evaluations
Planning and managing an evaluation
The practice and politics of evaluation
Data gathering methods
Data gathering concepts, analysis and interpretation
Evaluating quality
Making more use of evaluations
References
Appendix 1
Definitions
Appendix 2: Framework for analysing an evaluation
Appendix 3: Six evaluation designs - 'empty' formats
Appendix 4: Ten learning exercises
Index

About the Author

Dr John Ovretveit is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Nordic School of Public Health, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Previously he worked as a clincian in the British NHS and as Director of the Health Services Centre, Brunel University, England.

Reviews

"I recommend this as one of the best recent introductory texts on health service evaluation. It is clearly written, uncluttered by methodological details that can be found in other texts and is broad enough to be relevant to a wide range of people. Useful appendices provide learning exercises and a critical appraisal framework for analysing an evaluation and assessing evidence." - Health Service Journal "As an introductory text this book can be strongly recommended. It covers the body of evaluation theory. The new emphasis on evidence-based health care and the advent of clinical governance has highlighted particular gaps in the training and preparation of health service managers. Increasingly, they need to understandhow to commission and critique evaluations. For that group in particular, this text provides an excellent starting point." - British Journal of Health Care Management "Ovretveit provides the reader with an enlightening account of how evaluation might be applied from four different perspectives within a health service scenario: experimental evaluation, economic evaluation, developmental evaluation and managerial evaluation. Whilst in chapters five to eight he provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each. The wholetext achieves a strong sense of cohesion from a thorough consideration of the nature and design of evaluative methods and culminates with proposals for maximizing evaluative procedures within health care." - Medical Sociology News