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PubMed2005

Paying for health in two Rwandan provinces: financial flows and flaws.

The study intended to analyse the financial flows in two provinces within the Rwandan health system through the review of all available documentation and through interviews with key informants, to assess the scope for improved resource allocation. In Rwanda, there exists a large deficit of available financial resources in the health sector in general, and more specifically at health centre level. To improve this situation, it is considered to cover a large proportion of the entire population by mutual health insurance schemes. The schemes are able to pool certain risks, and they definitely improve financial access to health services. Nonetheless, they are inaccessible to the 'very poor', and--due to their limited financial base--they are unable to cover a complementary health care package. It is unlikely that they will mobilize substantial additional resources for health. External long-term commitments are required to cover this gap. A reassurance and readjustment system between the various insurance schemes should be established in order to increase financial protection provided. It might link up with insurance schemes in the formal employment sector. The combination of such a support for health insurance with performance-related incentives for health staff has the potential to increase both equity and quality of health services simultaneously and substantially.

Financing, Government↗
PubMed1990

Availability and accessibility of rural health care.

The 1980s saw a retrenchment of the ideology that government intervention could solve the problems of inadequate access to health services in rural areas. Increased emphasis was placed on an ideology that promoted deregulation and competitive market solutions. During the 1980s, the gap in the availability of physicians in metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan areas widened. Also during that time period, the gap between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan populations' utilization of physician services widened. In addition, many indicators of the health status of nonmetropolitan residents versus metropolitan residents worsened during the 1980s. As we enter the 1990s, concern about equitable access to needed health care services and for the vulnerability and fragility of rural health systems has resurfaced. A number of national policies and a research agenda to improve accessibility and availability of health services in rural areas are being considered.

Health Services↗
PubMed1994

Geographic imbalances of physician supply: an international comparison.

This study was undertaken to compare geographic imbalances of physician manpower in developed and developing countries and to evaluate the success of policies designed to alleviate the imbalances. Data were drawn from a mail survey of countries conducted by the World Health Organization, from national statistical summaries, and from published information on national policies and programs. Information was available from 26 developing countries and 15 developed countries. Among developing countries, the degree of urbanization and rural economic development appeared to be the most important determinants of the level of geographic imbalance. Among developed countries, those with very high overall physician/population ratios tended to have the least degree of imbalance, but this effect was not consistent. At the national level in most countries, the effect of policies or programs specifically designed to redistribute physician manpower appeared to be limited.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1978

Manpower for health services with special regard to primary health care.

The World Health Organization recently reoriented its HMD program. Its aim is to collaborate with the 150 member states in their efforts to make the HMD process (planning, "production," management of health personnal) relevant to the needs of well planned health services. On the basis of this principle, properly planned PHC services should be manned by health teams in which each member is responsible for, and prepared to carry out, certain well-defined tasks to cover primary preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative health needs of the entire population. After an overview of the present situation and solutions which are often largely medically biased, a logical approach is proposed. On the basis of a functional analysis, job patterns should be defined for each worker in the PHC team on the principle that all health activities should be undertaken at the most peripheral level of the health activities as is practicable, by the workers most suitably, and not most highly, trained to carry out those activities. Health manpower plans should then be translated into training programs to help the learners to prepare themselves, and motivate them, to meet the challenges of PHC. Proper management of PHC teams is equally important to ensure both job satisfaction of team members and "consumer" satisfaction and improvement of health status for the people.

Health Planning↗
PubMed1998

Psychiatrist and nonphysician mental health provider staffing levels in health maintenance organizations.

OBJECTIVE: This study attempts to determine the ratio of full-time-equivalent psychiatrists to members and that of nonphysician mental health professionals to psychiatrists in staff and group model health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and to compare the psychiatrist-to-member ratio with previous estimates of the required psychiatrist-to-population ratios in fee-for-service and managed care environments. METHODS: The Group Health Association of America (now the American Association of Health Plans) collected data on mental health staffing, enrollments, and other characteristics for 30 staff and group model HMOs. The authors evaluated the number of full-time-equivalent psychiatrists and nonphysician mental health professionals per 100,000 HMO members, and the ratio of full-time-equivalent nonphysician mental health professionals to psychiatrists. RESULTS: The overall mean number of full-time-equivalent psychiatrists and nonphysician mental health professionals per 100,000 members in the responding HMOs was 6.8 and 22.9, respectively. The overall mean ratio of nonphysician professionals to psychiatrists was 4.5. The overall number of psychiatrists per 100,000 members is less than half the requirement estimated by the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee in 1980, which assumed a fee-for-service environment, but it is about 40% to 80% greater than that estimated by other studies under the assumption of a managed care environment. CONCLUSIONS: Although a practice environment dominated by managed care may not require as high a psychiatrist-to-population ratio as a predominantly fee-for-service environment, it may well support a greater number of psychiatrists than previous studies have suggested.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2002

Health manpower planning in Slovenia: a policy analysis of the changes in roles of stakeholders and methodologies.

A heightened awareness about medical manpower issues can be observed in countries that are in a state of political, economic, and social transition. Slovenia entered the transition process in 1989 and became an independent country in 1991. Transition and independence influenced its health care in several ways. It changed the health care system and its financing (by introducing a Bismarckian style of social insurance). It then redistributed power from the Ministry of Health to several stakeholders. A major change occurred in the labor market in health care when the flow of health professionals from the newly independent countries greatly decreased. The decrease was partly due to the consequences of the war in the Balkans and partly due to independent labor legislation in Slovenia. Transitional changes brought new stakeholders to the scene, with a resulting redistribution of responsibilities for health manpower policies and the use of various methodologies. This policy analysis offers a detailed description of the contextual framework, quantitative data on medical manpower development, and, most important, interviews with representatives of the key stakeholders and study of relevant policy documents. We conclude that all stakeholders underpin the need for a structured approach toward health manpower planning in the form of a more coherent system of planning, decision making, and control. A compromise on mutual responsibilities between the less dominant Ministry of Health and the two new powerful stakeholders, the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia and the Medical Chamber of Slovenia, seems necessary.

Health Care Coalitions↗
PubMed2002

Environmental medicine in Germany--a review.

In this review I describe the development of environmental medicine as a specialized field of clinical medicine in Germany. New scientific societies were founded, based on traditions of public hygiene and occupational medicine, as a reaction to environmental issues concerning human health. Environmental medicine issues were also addressed by independent "critical" physicians. The first institutions to accept patients were centers for environmental medicine affiliated with research institutions and/or with the public health service. Medical professional organizations, particularly the German General Medical Council, described the need for and formulated conditions for additional qualification for doctors in environmental medicine, including a 200-hr course. This course and a qualifying exam were passed by about 3,000 doctors, mainly from the public health service and from occupational medicine. Unfortunately, few general physicians in primary outpatient care were similarly trained. To date, no representative study has been conducted on environmental patients, but I include in this review a typical list of patients' complaints. I also summarize research activities typical for environmental medicine in Germany. Present problems concern accounting systems and, for example, diagnosis and treatment of patients with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). A coordinated research program on MCS has been started.

Education, Medical↗