Healthcare Flashcards
health system
“A health system consists of all organizations, people and actions whose primary
intent is to promote, restore or maintain health. This includes efforts to influence
determinants of health as well as more direct health-improving activities.”
Pillars of the health-care systems
- Providers
✓Institutions include hospitals, clinics, and medical laboratories. These may be
operated by the government or by nonprofit or for-profit organizations.
✓Individuals include doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, dietitians and
others. - Finance
✓Sources of health funding/pay include national or private health insurance, out ofpocket
payment, donations, or charity.
✓Salary for governmental or organizational providers allows funders to control
health-care costs directly; however, it may lead to under-provision of services. - Information plays an increasingly critical role in the delivery of modern health care
and the efficiency of health systems. It includes clinical guidelines, medical
terminology, patients’ medical records, human resources information, and so forth. - Management includes policies and plans adopted by the government.
- Performance depends on indicators adopted by the providers for both time and
place comparisons, which enable monitoring of progress and differences.
✓Institutions include hospitals, clinics, and medical laboratories. These may be
operated by the government or by nonprofit or for-profit organizations.
✓Individuals include doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, dietitians and
others.
Providers
✓Sources of health funding/pay include national or private health insurance, out ofpocket
payment, donations, or charity.
✓Salary for governmental or organizational providers allows funders to control
health-care costs directly; however, it may lead to under-provision of services
Finance
plays an increasingly critical role in the delivery of modern health care
and the efficiency of health systems. It includes clinical guidelines, medical
terminology, patients’ medical records, human resources information, and so forth.
Information
policies and plans adopted by the government.
Management
depends on indicators adopted by the providers for both time and
place comparisons, which enable monitoring of progress and differences.
Performance
Health sector reform in Egypt
1- Provision of good quality services that should be: accessible, acceptable, continuous,
competent, effective, efficient, ensures equity, ensures respect and caring, safe, and
sustainable services with continuous quality improvement.
2- Complete coverage of the whole citizens by health insurance.
3- Provision of holistic, comprehensive, and integrated basic benefit package (BBP).
4- Upgrading PHC to provide family care with increasing the preventive role.
5- Increasing capacity of health providers through training and new medical
information.
6- Motivation of community participation in healthcare. Motivation of active
involvement of the local community is also needed through sharing in payment of health
services fees, in planning and in evaluation of services.
7- Decentralization of decision making, strengthening management systems and
developing a regulatory framework and institutional relationships to ensure quality of
care.
8- Developing the domestic pharmaceutical industry and reducing government
involvement in the production of pharmaceuticals while strengthening its role as a
financier.
Administrative Structure:
five areas namely:
1) Central administration for the minister’s office.
2) Curative health services.
3) Population and family planning.
4) Basic and preventive health services.
5) Administration and finance.
Development of infrastructure: both in quality and in quantity
• Establishing new services to slum areas and deprived areas in the form of health units
or mobile clinics.
• Renovation of the existing units.
• Developing a separate system for financial needs of the health care services.
• Application of family medicine program in all health units.
• Providing all equipment and materials to improve performance whenever there is
financial support.
• Supporting transportation and communication networks to upgrade the efficiency of
referral system.
• Developing health information systems from central to peripheral levels and between
public and private health services to ensure the flow of accurate reliable data of different
health problems.
2-Development of human resources:
• Expansion and support of family medicine program application through medical
school’s curriculum, continuous training of physicians, nurses and technicians.
• Continuous training in preventive and clinical medicine through fellowship programs.
• Development of managerial capabilities of physicians.
• Application of quality assurance system according to fixed standards to evaluate the
performance of health team. Military hospitals serve military and public sectors
(provide all levels of care).
● Primary health care
The PHC is the first point of contact between the community and the health-care
sector. It covers almost 80 % of community needs. Health services are provided by
general practitioners (new graduates) through urban and rural health facilities. The PHC
is cost effective and is the least expensive level of health care.
● Secondary health care
Secondary health care provides a higher level of curative care than PHC. It covers 15
% of the community needs. Health services are provided by specialists in general and
district hospitals and polyclinics. A referral system exists between primary care and
secondary care facilities. Feedback of information and follow-up are essential elements
of the referral system. Secondary level of care is more costly.
● Tertiary health care
Tertiary health care provides an advanced level of health-care and technology
through specialized hospitals and institutions and distinguished health-care specialists.
It covers 5 % of the community health needs. Tertiary level of care is expensive.
Primary Health Care
“essential
health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and
technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community
through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can
afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and
self- determination”.
