A health crisis caused by a pandemic tested the effectiveness of national healthcare systems by testing both financing and organizational and technical performance of patient care. At that time, the structural flaws in healthcare systems and inequalities in the level of healthcare in its different dimensions and countries due to resource constraints were highlighted. Therefore, the paper concentrates on investigating how the crisis in the health system affects the quality of healthcare services as a result of changes in the availability of financial, material, and human resources belonging to this system. The quantitative data, in terms of healthcare characterizing the OECD countries and selected non-member economies, treated as an example of economically developed regions, were chosen for the analysis. The study included five areas of resources, i.e., demographic, financial, human, technical, and the delivery of basic services in healthcare. T-test method for dependent samples, supplemented with Hedge’s g statistics, was applied to test the differences between the mean values of individual indicators. The results indicate the occurrence of changes in some areas of the healthcare system due to a crisis. Identifying areas that are particularly vulnerable to sudden changes in the healthcare system helps to understand which resource areas need to be strategically managed first, as shifts in levels respond to deteriorating healthcare quality outcomes.

Efficient management at family businesses, like all other enterprises, requires the use of appropriate methods and tools. However, in many cases, the people managing these entities do not have any formal business education and often follow their intuition and act on experience gained over the years. The purpose of this article is to determine the extent to which select management methods and tools are used in Polish family businesses and to examine their impact on the effectiveness of achieving various objectives. A survey was conducted on a group of 182 managers of family businesses from Poland, who were asked about the effectiveness of achieving goals and the methods and tools used in management. The goals have been aggregated into three main groups: family goals, business goals, and a mix of family and business goals. Then, using statistical methods, the impact of the selected management methods and tools on the effectiveness of these three groups of objectives was examined. The conducted analysis has shown that family businesses in Poland make little use of professional management methods and tools and are rather limited to the intuitive use of the simplest methods, which they often cannot even professionally name. The research results indicate that the use of these methods only partially influences the effectiveness of achieving the set goals, and this impact can be observed in all three groups. In view of the above, the basic task of the broader family business environment is to improve the knowledge of professional management methods and tools among family business managers. From the scientific point of view, further research in this area is also necessary because little use of management methods and tools, especially those more professional, makes it difficult to broaden the study of the actual impact of these instruments on the effectiveness of achieving family business objectives

The basic condition for the survival and development of each company is the achievement of adequate financial results. This also applies to family businesses, albeit the development and improvement in their market situation must be the most important – indeed, the only – endeavour. Therefore, the question arises as to what extent financial results and relevant development trends may affect the level of accomplishment of the entire range of family business objectives. The objective of the article is to examine the impact of changes in selected measures revealing the company’s financial situation on the level of the accomplishment of family business objectives. The article is based on the results of a survey conducted on a group of 182 family business managers, who were asked to assess trends concerning selected measures of financial condition and the extent to which 22 family business objectives had been accomplished. These objectives were grouped into five main objectives during the statistical analysis phase. The impact of development trends concerning financial measures on the level of the accomplishment of objectives was examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results obtained indicate that the level of accomplishment of family business objectives is only slightly correlated with the development trends of selected financial measures. In the case of family objectives, no statistically significant impact of changes in any of the measures was recorded, while the level of accomplishment of the business objectives and the family business objective is determined by changes in only some indicators. The approach suggested in this article, consisting in examining the relationships between the development trends of financial measures and the level of accomplishment of family business objectives, is an innovative approach which indicates new directions for research and helps to fill the research gap. It is in line with research on family businesses and financial measures, while confirming that family objectives can be achieved to a certain extent regardless of financial results. The results obtained may also be useful for familybusiness managers in the process of establishing the company’soperational strategy.

Purpose: Social welfare homes are one of the key elements of institutional social welfare. Their operation, and in particular the quality of the services they provide, is significantly influenced by the financial resources at their disposal. The aim of this article is to examine the economic aspects of the functioning of social welfare homes, including in particular their financing from public expenditure. Design/methodology/approach: The article uses secondary data from the resources of the Central Statistical Office and the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy. The research conducted in this article focuses primarily on the financial aspects of the functioning of social welfare homes, placing the expenditure on the functioning of these entities in the context of other public expenditure and relating it to the level of economic development of the country. Findings: The analyses carried out showed an increase in public expenditure, both from the central budget and local government units, related to the maintenance of social welfare homes. Local governments play a particularly important role in this context, as they allocate approximately one-third of all funds earmarked for social assistance to the maintenance of social welfare homes. A significant burden here is the payment by municipalities for stays in social welfare homes – over the years, both the number of people eligible for such assistance and the average amount of such benefits granted have been increasing, which may pose a serious challenge to the entire system of financing social welfare homes in the future. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation is the use of aggregated secondary data only, which in a way forces the use of generalizations and treats social welfare homes as a homogeneous category. However, even so, the analyses of public expenditure on the functioning of social welfare homes are noteworthy. Originality/value: Most studies on social welfare homes focus primarily on the social or legal aspects of their operation. This study approaches the subject differently, focusing on public expenditure related to the operation of such facilities. This approach makes a significant contribution to the literature on the subject, expanding it to include aspects related to the financial burden on public budgets associated with the need to ensure the functioning of this form of social assistance.