Małgorzata Striker

Background. The phenomenon of managerialism is more and more frequently observed in health care institutions that previously were public in most countries. It is based on introducing professional management into hospitals, economization of measures, competitiveness, privatization and service contracting. The introduced solutions are transferred from the private sector, however, it is not entirely clear how these models will operate in the medical care sector and transfer on the desired increase in effectiveness.
Research aims. The aim of this article is to present as the results of research concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of management in health care entities and the possibilities of applying the praxeological analysis of activities in the evaluation of management effectiveness.
Method. In order to achieve this aim, a review of the literature concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of management in health care institutions and in hospitals especially was carried out.
Key findings. Literature analysis shows the necessity to change the current approach concerning the applied research methods emphasised by many authors, in which quantitative methods dominate. It is important to complement these studies with a qualitative approach that would mostly include the specific context of shaping managerial roles in health care and combine them with traditional medical roles. The term efficiency is very much confused
and misused with the term effectiveness and they are not precisely defined in the literature relating to management in health care. To complement this deficiency the article proposes the application of the idea of praxeological efficaciousness and praxeological analysis allowing one to include in the evaluation of management performance in health care numerous aspects of the functioning of hospitals without focusing on just the economic one.