Mapping the governance of human resources for health in Serbia

This article maps the current governance of human resources for health (HRH) in relation to universal health coverage in Serbia since the health sector reforms in 2003.The study adapts the Global Health Workforce Alliance/World Health Organization four-dimensional framework of HRH in the context of governance for universal health coverage. A set of proxies was established for the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of HRH. Analysis of official HRH documentation from relevant institutions and reports were used to construct a governance profile of HRH for Serbia from the introduction of the reform in 2003 up to 2013. The results show that all Serbian districts (except Sremski) surpass the availability threshold of 59.4 skilled midwives, nurses and physicians per 10,000 inhabitants. District accessibility of health workforce greatly differed from the national average with variances from +26% to −34%. Analysis of national averages and patient load of general practitioners showed variances among districts by ±21%, whilst hospital discharges per 100 inhabitants deviated between +52% and −45%. Pre-service and in-service education of health workforce is regulated and accredited. However, through its efforts to respond to population health needs Serbia lacks a single coordinating entity to take overall responsibility for effective and coordinated HRH planning, management and development within the broader landscape of health strategy development.     

Health workforce governance: Processes,tools and actors towards a competent workforce for integrated health services delivery

A competent health workforce is a vital resource for health services delivery, dictating the extent to which services are capable of responding to health needs. In the context of the changing health landscape, an integrated approach to service provision has taken precedence. For this, strengthening health workforce competencies is an imperative, and doing so in practice hinges on the oversight and steering function of governance. To aid health system stewards in their governing role, this review seeks to provide an overview of processes, tools and actors for strengthening health workforce competencies. It draws from a purposive and multidisciplinary review of literature, expert opinion and country initiatives across the WHO European Region's 53 Member States. Through our analysis, we observe distinct yet complementary roles can be differentiated between health services delivery and the health system. This understanding is a necessary prerequisite to gain deeper insight into the specificities for strengthening health workforce competencies in order for governance to rightly create the institutional environment called for to foster alignment. Differentiating between the contribution of health services and the health system in the strengthening of health workforce competencies is an important distinction for achieving and sustaining health improvement goals.     

Italian responses to the COVID-19 emergency: Overthrowing 30 years of health reforms?

This paper discusses the measures adopted by the Italian government to face the COVID-19 emergency after the first wave in March/April 2020. This study places these measures in light of the massive reform process based on the “managerialism” of healthcare, which started in the 1990s. These reforms, which were inspired by the ideas of ‘New Public Management’, introduced managerialism, regionalization and quasi-markets to the Italian National Health System. As a result, dramatic changes have been made in public healthcare, and the responsibility for healthcare was decentralized to regions, introducing a multi-level governance structure. The COVID-19 emergency has drawn the results of this approach into question. With the enactment of new decrees, the central government directly intervened in the management of the health system by introducing specific measures aiming to increase the number of hospital beds and personnel, which w previously downsized. We describe the main content of the new measures adopted to face the COVID-19 emergency and discuss how key points of the managerialization process in Italy are being questioned as a result of these measures. The COVID-19 emergency will likely redesign the trajectory of health reforms in Italy and other countries in Europe.     

澳大利亚卫生人力资源管理改革及对我国的借鉴意义

自2007年底,澳大利亚政府实施自1984年引入全民医疗保险制度以来规模最大的一次医疗体制改革.在本轮医改中,澳大利亚政府出台了一系列加强卫生人力资源管理的重要举措,如新设独立的卫生人力管理机构、成立统一的注册和认证机构、加大卫生人力资源经费投入、创新管理体制和机制及制定全面卫生政策来引导卫生人力向基层流动.本文简要介...     

Primary care workforce development in Europe: An overview of health system responses and stakeholder views

Better primary care has become a key strategy for reforming health systems to respond effectively to increases in non-communicable diseases and changing population needs, yet the primary care workforce has received very little attention. This article aligns primary care policy and workforce development in European countries. The aim is to provide a comparative overview of the governance of workforce innovation and the views of the main stakeholders. Cross-country comparisons and an explorative case study design are applied. We combine material from different European projects to analyse health system responses to changing primary care workforce needs, transformations in the general practitioner workforce and patient views on workforce changes. The results reveal a lack of alignment between primary care reform policies and workforce policies and high variation in the governance of primary care workforce innovation. Transformations in the general practitioner workforce only partly follow changing population needs; countries vary considerably in supporting and achieving the goals of integration and community orientation. Yet patients who have experienced task shifting in their care express overall positive views on new models. In conclusion, synthesising available evidence from different projects contributes new knowledge on policy levers and reveals an urgent need for health system leadership in developing an integrated people-centred primary care workforce.     

Health workforce policy and Turkey's health care reform

The health care industry is labor intensive and depends on well-trained and appropriately deployed health professionals to deliver services. This article examines the health workforce challenges in the context of Turkey's recent health reform initiative, Health Transformation Program (HTP). Reformers identified shortages, imbalances in the skills-mix, and inequities in the geographical distribution of health professionals as among the major problems. A comprehensive set of policies was implemented within the HTP framework to address these problems. The article argues that these policies addressed some of the health workforce challenges, while on the other hand exacerbating others and hence may have resulted in increasing the burden on the workforce. So far HTP's governance reforms and health human resource policy have not encouraged meaningful participation of other key stakeholders in the governance of the health care system. Without effective participation of health professionals, the next stages of HTP implementation that focus on managerial reforms such as restructuring public hospitals, improving the primary care system and implementing new initiatives on quality improvement could be very difficult.     

公立医院改革要从五方面着手

我国公立医院面临着城乡间和地区间差距大,虽机构数量比重不高,但床位、人员比重过高,财政补偿机制不健全,政府对公立医院的治理关系不清晰,医院人事制度与医疗服务活动特点不相适应,医务人员薪酬不合理等问题。借鉴国外公立医院改革经验,结合我国实际,应重点进行转变机构运行经费投入方式、改革医院基本建设投入方式、调整医疗服务价格体系、改善政府对公立医院的治理和加强公立医院内部管理等五方面的综合改革。     

“健康中国战略”下社区精神健康服务协同供给的实现框架及路径

精神健康问题已成为影响经济社会发展的重大公共卫生问题和社会问题。基于社区的精神健康服务有利于精神疾病的早发现、早治疗、早控制,是促进精神健康的重要途径。我国当前的社区精神健康服务需综合运用健康治理、优势治理和协同治理的规律和方法,重组社区事务,建立协同平台,完善监护制度,加强考核评估的协同,提升服务能力,对社区居民不同的精神健康服务需求进行多层次、整体性回应。     

Human resource management in post-conflict health systems: review of research and knowledge gaps

In post-conflict settings, severe disruption to health systems invariably leaves populations at high risk of disease and in greater need of health provision than more stable resource-poor countries. The health workforce is often a direct victim of conflict. Effective human resource management (HRM) strategies and policies are critical to addressing the systemic effects of conflict on the health workforce such as flight of human capital, mismatches between skills and service needs, breakdown of pre-service training, and lack of human resource data. This paper reviews published literatures across three functional areas of HRM in post-conflict settings: workforce supply, workforce distribution, and workforce performance. We searched published literatures for articles published in English between 2003 and 2013. The search used context-specific keywords (e.g. post-conflict, reconstruction) in combination with topic-related keywords based on an analytical framework containing the three functional areas of HRM (supply, distribution, and performance) and several corresponding HRM topic areas under these. In addition, the framework includes a number of cross-cutting topics such as leadership and governance, finance, and gender. The literature is growing but still limited. Many publications have focused on health workforce supply issues, including pre-service education and training, pay, and recruitment. Less is known about workforce distribution, especially governance and administrative systems for deployment and incentive policies to redress geographical workforce imbalances. Apart from in-service training, workforce performance is particularly under-researched in the areas of performance-based incentives, management and supervision, work organisation and job design, and performance appraisal. Research is largely on HRM in the early post-conflict period and has relied on secondary data. More primary research is needed across the areas of workforce supply, workforce distribution, and workforce performance. However, this should apply a longer-term focus throughout the different post-conflict phases, while paying attention to key cross-cutting themes such as leadership and governance, gender equity, and task shifting. The research gaps identified should enable future studies to examine how HRM could be used to meet both short and long term objectives for rebuilding health workforces and thereby contribute to achieving more equitable and sustainable health systems outcomes after conflict.     

县医院综合改革的理论基础、困境与突破——以陕西子长医改为例

从目标定位、基本理论出发,探讨了县医院改革思路,并对陕西子长县医改方案进行了分析。作为农村医疗体系的龙头,县医院的定位是以适宜的水平提供常见大病的诊断治疗,但面临如何转变利润驱动运营机制带来的挑战。公立医院治理结构的理论思路是在完成社会公共目标和提高医院自主激励机制之间的平衡,先决条件是医疗市场环境的监管水平。价格扭曲、药品流通市场垄断和医疗保险的粗放管理水平是我国公立医院的特殊运营环境,县医院改革必须充分考虑这些因素。陕西子长县通过政府承担医务人员的工资和医院的发展资金,同时进行工资和绩效管理等人事制度改革来解决社会目标和效率之间的矛盾。子长改革的挑战是克服政府集中控制带来的效率损失。     

Medical workforce education and training: A failed decentralisation attempt to reform organisation,financing, and planning in England

The 2010–2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government proposed introducing a radical decentralisation reform of the organisation, financing, and planning of medical workforce education and training in England. However, following public deliberation and parliamentary scrutiny of the government's proposals, it had to abandon and alter its original proposals to the extent that they failed to achieve their original decentralisation objectives. This failed decentralisation attempt provides important lessons about the policy process and content of both workforce governance and health system reforms in Europe and beyond. The organisation, financing, and planning of medical workforce education is as an issue of national importance and should remain in the stewardship of the national government. Future reform efforts seeking to enhance the skills of the workforce needed to deliver high-quality care for patients in the 21st century will have a greater chance of succeeding if they are clearly articulated through engagement with stakeholders, and focus on the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate multi-professional education and training in universities and teaching hospitals.     

A review of health governance: Definitions,dimensions and tools to govern

Background

The premise that good governance will ultimately lead to better health outcomes has been central to the proliferation of work in this area over the past decade.

Objective

To consolidate and align literature on governance by presenting an overview of efforts to define, describe and operationalize the health governance function.

Methods

A targeted review of governance literature.

Results

(1) A variety of terms have been assigned to precede health governance definitions. These terms commonly describe governance ideals (e.g. good, democratic) or characteristics of the organization of actors in governance arrangements (e.g. hierarchical, networked). (2) Dimensions of governance are defined from different perspectives and in varied combinations, capturing values, sub-functions and/or outcomes of governance. (3) Tools used to govern remain to be cataloged, however, measures can be aligned according to dimensions of governance or their ability to create specific relationships between actors.

Discussion

Resolving the conceptual confusion around health governance requires recognition for the differences in the premise and approaches taken to defining governance, as well as specifying core dimensions and aligning applicable tools.

Conclusion

Despite a growing literature base, a concerted effort is needed for a more accessible understanding of health governance that is both practical at present and actionable for policy-makers.     

高校附属医院城市社区妇幼保健服务模式探讨

目的:探索高校附属医院城市社区妇幼保健服务模式,为公立医院改革提供新思路、新方法。方法:采用便利抽样方法,对辽宁省锦州市区由三级医院管理的某社区395名孕产妇进行问卷调查,分析孕产妇对保健知识和医院社区医疗服务模式的需求。结果:不同社会人口学特征的孕产妇对健康教育知识及健康教育方式的需求均不同。结论:高校附属医院城市社区妇幼保健作为一种新的妇幼保健管理工作服务模式,能增强医院对妇幼保健服务的支持,加快妇幼保健专业人才的培养,强化护理人员对妇幼保健护理的主动服务意识,为促进更加有效的妇幼保健管理模式和公立医院改革提供了新的工作思路和方法。     

卫生经济改革对医院管理行为的影响研究

该文主要验证两项假设:卫生经济政策对医院管理行为有影响和政策决策者与医院管理者的目标有差异.资料来源于政策文件和对淄博和南通市的现场调查,分析采用以定性为主的时间序列方法.主要结论是医院管理行为对应卫生经济改革总体上时间滞后,医院经济管理将进入成熟期,卫生经济政策不能落实的原因之一是政策制定者和医院管理者的目标不一致.     

公立医院法人治理结构与改革

随着国务院医改近期重点实施方案的出台,公立医院法人治理结构的改革模式也渐渐明朗。公立医院法人治理结构改革是创新公立医院体制机制的关键任务之一,是维护公立医院公益性的重要制度保障。针对公立医院法人治理结构的内涵作了阐述,从公立医院的多层委托代理关系、产权制度等多角度分析了我国公立医院法人治理结构的现状和问题,提出了我国公立医院法人治理结构改革的具体措施。     

我国县级公立医院改革模式的比较

县级公立医院改革是我国医药卫生体制改革的“重心”.绩效型行政化和治理型市场化是破除管制型市场化的两大改革模式.从基本观点和制度安排两个角度对绩效型行政化和治理型市场化两大改革模式进行比较,并提出推进治理型市场化改革模式的主要思路.     

Health workforce governance in Italy

More precise health workforce governance has become a prominent issue in healthcare systems. This issue is particularly important in Italy, given its strongly doctor-centered healthcare system and the dramatic aging of its physicians’ labor force. Using different sources of information (statistical data, official planning documents and interviews with key informants), the article attempts to answer two questions. Why has the Italian healthcare systems found itself in the situation of a potential drastic reduction in the amount of doctors in the medium term without a rebalancing through a different mix of skills and professionals? How good is the capacity of the Italian healthcare system to plan healthcare workforce needs? The widespread presence of ‘older’ physicians is the result of the strong entry of doctors into the Italian healthcare system in the 1970s and 1980s. Institutional fragmentation, difficulties in drafting broad healthcare reforms, political instability and austerity measures explain why Italian health workforce forecasting and planning are still unsatisfactory, although recent developments indicate that changes are under way. In order to tackle these problems it is necessary to foster closer cooperation among a wide range of stakeholders, to move from uni-professional to multi-professional health workforce planning, and to partially re-centralise decision making.     

深圳市公立医院法人治理改革探索

分析了目前公立医院体制机制方面存在的问题,按照"政事分开、管办分开、医药分开、营利性与非营利性分开"的改革原则,制定了公立医院法人治理改革实施路径.一是建立公立医院管理委员会,统筹政府办医保障职能;建立公立医院管理机构,提高举办医院的行政管理水平;转变卫生行政部门职能,形成多元化办医格局.二是建立分级决策机制、自主经营制度及多元监管制度,解决政事分开问题.三是研究制定公立医院章程,促进公立医院向法定机构转变,通过法制化巩固法人治理改革成果.

Abstract：

Analysis of setbacks found in the existing system and mechanism of public hospitals. Based on the health reform principles of "Separation of administration and management, Separation of administration and operation, Separation of prescribing and dispensing, and Separation of for-profit hospitals and nonprofit hospitals", the authors named the following roadmap for public hospital governance reform. First, set up a management committee for each public hospital to coordinate the government function for medical service; set up a public hospital authority to upgrade the management level of these hospitals; transform functionality of health authorities to encourage diversity in medical service providers. Second, establish the tiered decision making mechanism, autonomous operation system and diversified supervision system, to separate administration and management. Third, formulate articles of association for hospitals to encourage their evolution to legal entities, consolidating the government reforms by legal means.     

健康治理视角下的“三医”联动:内涵、 目标与实现路径分析

“三医”联动是新一轮医改确定的基本原则之一,也是深化医改的必然要求和有效路径。从健康治理的视角观察,“三医”联动是通过统筹推进医疗、医保、医药领域的改革,使“三医”领域的运行机制和治理主体的行动策略协调统一、相互支持,从而共同促进改革目标达成的过程,其本质是重塑“三医”领域的制度环境和行为规则,为治理主体提供具有内在一致性的激励约束机制,促使“三医”在特定改革目标的实现过程中达到制度耦合状态,根本目标则是维护和增进人民健康。为落实“三医”联动的改革要求,可以从治理主体和需求分析的双重视角出发,识别改革目标,设定政策议程,分析实现特定改革目标需要遵循的路径和措施,并督促政府职能部门根据职责分工细化各自领域的改革措施。同时,还需要健全相关体制机制、提升技术支持手段,为“三医”联动改革的推进提供有力保障。