Redesigning the Organizational Structure to Reach Efficiency

The structure of an organization requires partial modification or even total redesigning due to the changes in missions, strategies, policies and objectives once environmental and technological changes take place. This evolutionary redesign and implementation of its plan can have the maximum effectiveness and efficiency when all aspects and components of a coherent structure are considered carefully. This research has considered redesigning the structure of the Ministry and outlines the methodology and undertaken activities in order to evolve the structure of the central department of Ministry to prove how a re-design in organizational structure followed by policy coherence can maximize the output in healthcare sector.

Bridging the Gaps with Nonprofits

This chapter will examine how nonprofits are both bridging the gaps left behind from health policy, and are at the intersection of institutions, interests, and the policy process. Using cultural competency as a theoretical lens, the chapter will make use of the current literature, demographic trends, and other qualitative and quantitative data to situate three case studies. As the Affordable Care Act, and other health policies tout themselves as solutions to gaps in health care services for minorities, this chapter offers an overview and evaluation of these policies as well as an explanation of the role nonprofits have in filling necessary service delivery and advocacy.

Stakeholders Engagement and Agenda Setting in a Developing Context

One area of focus in the study of policymaking in developing countries is the extent to which policymaking in the developing countries is similar to the interaction among stakeholder groups, including politicians, that occurs in developed countries. This paper explores this issue in the case of the development of the Bangladesh Health Policy 2011. It is found that the policymaking process has many well-organized actors with very clear and efficient roles in generating policy outputs. This study indicates that the distinctions between policymaking in western and eastern countries, at least in some countries, may be breaking down.

On-Site Clinics

With the continued rising cost of health insurance and the fiscal constraints as a result of the 2007-09 economic recession requiring local governments in the U.S. to make cuts in employees, services, and benefits, it appears that on-site health clinics are one method of reducing, or at least, slowing health care costs. This chapter analyzes the use and benefits of such clinics for local government managers that is a new, but potentially effective method of both controlling costs and improving employee health.

The Study of Public Reporting in Healthcare

Public reporting, intended as the public disclosure of information on healthcare performance, is linked to the improvement of the quality of care through the incentives of selection and change, which are in turn determined by the availability of comparative information that is used by those outside the system (citizens) and those from within (organizations and professionals). In the last few decades, the healthcare sector, have undergone considerable change. This change is inevitably destined to modify the way in which citizens turn to healthcare services, and the way in which hospitals are called upon to be transparent and accountable in how they provide services. It is within this context that public reporting became widespread, as a strategy geared towards promoting informed choices to consumers and stimulating the improvement of quality of care. The aim of this paper is to highlight how public reporting systems have the potential to not only support healthcare users in making informed choices, but to also foster healthcare structures in the improvement of their services.

A Systematic Approach towards the Typology of Functions of National Health System

As one of the main national systems in any country, the health system has always been considered by governments. What distinguishes health system from other systems is that its purpose is directly related to the public health. Different countries adopt different structural patterns in this field but one can consider relatively common functions for a national health system which includes all functional aspects for this system. In recent years, attempts have been made for offering a comprehensive model in describing the functions. The OECD determined principles needed to offer an appropriate typology that should be independent of the names of health programs in different countries. In this chapter, it's tried to provide an overview of the proposed models for structures and functions of the health system and to propose a comprehensive model for it with an emphasis on theoretical aspects of public policy-making and binding functions in any national development system. This comprehensive model, provides the possibility to evaluate the success of a health system.

A Revolutionary Look at Health Policy Analysis in Developing Countries

Health policy analysis has been the focus of attention of a number of scholars, health practitioners and policy makers. However, there has been much less attention given to how to do policy analysis, what research designs, theories or methods best inform policy analysis. This study begins by looking at the health policy environment, and some of the challenges to researching this highly complex phenomenon. It focuses on research in middle and low income countries. Attention is drawn to the roles of the policy researcher and the importance of reflexivity and researcher's position in the research process and finally ways of advancing the field of health policy analysis is discussed.

The Political Economy of Infectious Diseases in Africa

Annually, many deaths occur in Africa due to infectious diseases. African countries are predominantly low-income. A third of all deaths in low-income countries are caused by lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, malaria and tuberculosis. These preventable diseases continue to kill millions of Africans each year. More recently, Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has killed thousands in Africa but even with the number of deaths attributable to EVD, it is still a fraction of the deaths caused by any one of the top five causes of deaths in low-income countries. This chapter examined the political economies that have enabled infectious diseases to thrive in Africa. The numerous conflicts, barriers to education, high fertility rates in the poorest countries and the privatization-tied conditions of loans were some of the factors identified. Ecological studies also suggest that changes in climatic conditions around the West African country of Guinea enabled the index case to come from Guinea. The foundational causes of the diseases have made the African nations susceptible. The chapter concludes with recommendations.

Health Policy Implementation and Its Barriers

The chapter describes policy implementation components of a health system in United States of America and explains how they affect health outcomes (service delivery). It argues that implemented policies affect various components of a health system in terms of service delivery, workforce, information, financing, medical products, technologies, leadership and governance. Using health system as framework of analysis, the paper explains that the outcome of health policy implementation determines the availability, quality and equitability of program service delivery. The chapter goes on to argue that policy implementation barriers, such as demand-and supply-side barriers, market, insufficient resources, cultural barriers, imperfect communication, information, education, coordination, leadership and governance affect the poor and vulnerable groups in developed and developing countries from benefitting from public spending on public health policies and programs.

The States as Generators of Incremental Change in American Health Care Policy

The literature defines the role of interest groups and administration officials in the evolution of health care policy but does not acknowledge the impact of Congressional casework or the initial Social Security (OASI) eligibility criteria. There is, as a result, an inadequate appreciation for (1) the extent to which the initial development of federal policy was a function of Congressional delegations pursuing initiatives that would increase the flow of federal dollars their states could use to expand health services or (2) the way in which the regional cleavages created OASI eligibility criteria combined with the South's control of Congressional leadership positions to yield an expansion of health care for indigent people while intentionally delaying the creation of Medicare. This chapter addresses these gaps and provides a more complete picture of the way in which the incremental, unplanned evolution of federal health care policy was the product of using federal resources to diminish the states' fiscal needs and the south's capacity to temporarily control the health care agenda.