The Employment of Civilian Dentists in the Israel Defence Forces: A Public-Private Mix Case Study

Documents how the Dental Service of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) successfully implemented private sector approaches to reimbursement and staffing in a special project designed to improve prosthodontic care for career military personnel. The innovative public-private synthesis enabled the IDF to relieve bottlenecks and increase productivity while securing high levels of employee and patient satisfaction. The success of the innovation can be attributed, in part, to specific measures taken to adapt private sector practices to the culture and norms of the public sector and to integrate the new program into the broader organizational framework of the IDF Medical Corps. The recruitment of managers appropriate to the various stages of the organizational change cycle also played an important role in the project′s success. The study is based on in-depth interviews of senior managers within the IDF medical corps, interviews of the managers directly involved in implementing the change, IDF budget reports and productivity analyses, and a survey of front-line dentists. The analysis will be of interest to managers of public health care systems from around the world, who are looking to the private sector for innovative ideas on how to improve the efficiency of public programmes.