[Are practice guidelines being followed in specialized care?].

We surveyed to which extent the processes of examination and treatment in 2012 were based on guidelines based on evaluated scientific evidence within the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa. The survey was directed at the fulfillment of 31 Current Care guidelines and 19 HALO guidelines, four nursing science guidelines as well as one physiotherapeutic guideline in a total of 1,318 patients. Current Care guidelines were mainly fulfilled well.

Knowledge sources affecting decision-making among social and health care managers.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how managers in social and health care evaluate the knowledge sources affecting their decision-making, and how the evaluations were associated with the managers' professional background, activity sector, gender, age and management experience.

Design/methodology/approach: The study data are gathered from a questionnaire survey to the middle-line doctor, nurse and social managers (n = 404) within the responsibility area of a Finnish university hospital. Assessed the proportions of individual knowledge sources in the complete data set and their associations with the subjects' background data.

Effectiveness in political--administrative decision-making in specialized healthcare.

Aim: To investigate the occurrence of the word ;;effectiveness'' in the political-administrative decision-making minutes in specialized healthcare as presented to board and council meetings by top management teams.

Methods: The occurrence and intended use of ;;effectiveness'' were identified from all council and board meeting minutes (n = 190) of five Finnish university hospital districts in 2001 and 2006. Data were collected from the Internet pages of the hospital districts.