Health System Introduction

Hello again :)

Here we are in a more serious note to learn something about health system. Lets try and understand what health system actually is. I was wondering what it really meant,

And then after some help from lectures and Mr. Google, i found a few definition related to health system. All right, so first lets look on what a system means. 

System is a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex organized structure. 

Now a simple view on health system. Health system is actually defined as a system that consists of all the organizations, institutions, resources and people whose primary purpose is to improve health. A good health care system will be able to provide quality services to ALL people when and where they need them with at an optimum or affordable cost. A well functioning system would respond in a balanced way by 4 main factors which are :-

1. Improving health status of individuals, family and communities. When this point is achieved, people are healthier, this leads to a happy good quality life. :)

2. Defending population against what threatens its health. When this point is achieved with an efficient system, the people are protected from these threats. :)

3. Protecting people against financial consequences of ill-health. It is common knowledge that health care can be VERY expensive at times (the financial part of the system will be discussed in the later posts). A good system will be able to guard the people against the financial risks of health care.  

4. Providing equitable access to people centered care. Where EVERYONE who needs the care should have access to the care regardless of their financial status, geographical distribution and et cetera. 

Of course every system has its setbacks and problems of its own. It's never perfect ain't it? Anyway that is what we'll see over the next postings. All right lets come back to the issue at hand here. 

Now we shall see how we measure the outcome of the system. The outcome can be measured in 3 ways. 

1. Health status - as mentioned earlier the health status plays an important role indicating the efficiency of the system. It can be measured using indicators such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy and so on.

2. Citizen satisfaction - this refers more to non clinical quality care. I was a little confused on what this meant. So again i headed for Mr.Google. According to WHO, there are 8 criterias for non clinical quality care :-

• Interpersonal :
• Dignity
• Autonomy
• Communication
• Confidentiality
• Structures
• Quality of basic amenities
• Choice
• Access to social support network
• Prompt attention

Thus, now we understand what it means by it. All these 8 criterias indicate the patient's satisfaction during the care giving process.

3. Financial risk protection - With this the concept of equity is acknowledged. The citizens must be protected from financial risk because as mentioned earlier, the health care cost can be high and unpredictable at the same time. The equity here depends on the household income and wealth. A way of measuring this outcome is by calculating the percentage of people having health insurance.

I hope with this post you will have a slight understanding on what health system really is. My main purpose is for the basic understanding of the subject. I wish to simplify things for a better understanding. I hope reading this post has helped you. :)

p/s : Since many did not understand the cartoon in my previous post, I will explain it a little. Please look at it again and notice that the patient is dead (his ECG is flat, no electrical activity) and the dr is still prescribing him Aspirins. Hope you see it now. ;)

Adios. Tc and Keep reading folks :)

References :

1) Lecture Note Block 4.2 - Introduction to Block 4.2 and Health System and Its Outcome (Prof. Laksono)

2) World Health Organization -  http://www.who.int/en/ 

3) Estonian Health System (pdf)

4) Dictionary - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/