Acknowledgments

Of the many people who have contributed to this book, first and foremost are the care providers, managers, and patients who participated in data collection. Some of those participants were from hospitals in Boston: Beth Israel Deaconess, Brigham and Women's, Massachusetts General, New England Baptist, and Newton-Wellesley; in New York City: Beth Israel Hospital, the Hospital for Joint Diseases, and the Hospital for Special Surgery; and in the Dallas area: Baylor University Medical Center and Presbyterian Plano. Other participants were from nursing homes throughout Massachusetts: Beaumont, Chapin, D'Youville, German Center, Harborside Healthcare, Hathaway Manor, Hebrew Rehab, Neville Manor, New England Deaconess, Loomis House, Lutheran Home, Orchard Cove, Penacook Place, Radius Healthcare, and South Cove Manor.

I am particularly thankful to Dr. Benjamin Bierbaum of New England Baptist, Dr. William Head of Presbyterian Plano, Dr. Robert Jackson of Baylor University Medical Center, Dr. Michael Kelly of Beth Israel New York, Dr. Richard Laskin of the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Stephen Lipson of Beth Israel Deaconess, Dr. John Siliski of Massachusetts General, Dr. Thomas Thornhill of Brigham and Women's, and Dr. Joseph Zuckerman of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, who were my coinvestigators in the original study of surgical care coordination and who provided their insights as well as access to many of the interviews and outcomes data presented in this book.

I am also indebted to others who collaborated with me on the research underlying this book, with whom I have published many of the results in academic journals. I especially thank Julian Wimbush, who worked with me on every aspect of the original study of surgical care coordination, gathering patient outcomes data, surveying providers, and interviewing hospital administrators. I also thank Dr. Adrienne Bennett, Joseph Miller, and Dana Weinberg, with whom I collaborated on the study of medical care coordination; Cori Kautz, Will Lusenhop, Dana Weinberg, and Dr. John Wright, with whom I collaborated on the study of postdischarge care coordination; and Christine Bishop, Lisa Dodson, Almas Dossa, Susan Eaton, Walter Leutz, Susan Pfefferle, Dana Weinberg, and Rebekah Zincavage, with whom I collaborated on the study of long-term care coordination.

For helping to test out my early ideas regarding the coordination of patient care, I thank the participants in the Quality of Care Seminar at the Harvard School of Public Health, led by Heather Palmer, and the participants in the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Managed Care Industry Group at Harvard, led by Joseph Newhouse, who pushed me to sharpen my questions and find better methods for answering those questions. I thank Anne-Marie Audet of the Commonwealth Fund of New York as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Harvard Business School Division of Research for funding the studies that are reported in this book. As always, I thank Gail Pesyna and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their ongoing support of industry studies.

I am grateful to Susan Edgman-Levitan and Paul Cleary, founders of the Picker Institute, who taught me to assess the patient's experience from the patient's perspective, and to Dr. Jeffrey Katz of Brigham and Women's Hospital, who taught me to measure and risk-adjust patient outcomes. For ongoing insights into healthcare management and the health policy environment, I thank my colleagues at Brandeis University's Heller School, particularly Stuart Altman, Christine Bishop, Sarita Bhalotra, Jon Chilingerian, Michael Doonan, Deborah Garnick, Connie Horgan, Stan Wallack, and other members of the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy. For their thorough comments on this book, I thank my colleagues Thomas Kochan, Robert McKersie and Earll Murman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I thank the Families First Health and Support Center staff with whom I have worked as a board member to improve the quality and efficiency of care for patients and the work environment for staff. I am indebted to leaders of the Service Employees International Union for including me in a working session on the U.S. healthcare system in which we sought solutions to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders.

This book is dedicated to my brother Ed Hoffer and to those at St. Luke's Roosevelt in New York City who provided care for him in his final months. I thank my friends and neighbors, brothers, sisters, and extended family, especially my parents, John and Shirley Hoffer, and my parents-in-law, Marilyn and Irwin Gittell, for their love and support over the years. Most of all, I thank my husband, Ross Gittell, and our daughters, Rose and Grace Hoffer Gittell, for sharing with me in the adventures of everyday life.