Resilient Health Systems: What We Know; What We Should Do

Description

Since February 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has strained health systems worldwide. Despite several measures adopted, including the deployment of emergency funds to sustain health service transformations and investment in vaccine development, the crisis has taken over a year to be controlled. The consequences are still affecting the capacity and capabilities of health systems. In light of the ongoing pandemic, this book explores the factors determining the ability of health systems to cope with and recover from a crisis, and therefore their level of resilience. The term resilience has gained momentum in health systems research, with several scholars contributing to the definition of the concept. Providing a comprehensive health system resilience agenda, policy-makers, public health specialists, health managers, scholars and practitioners will find in this work both a grounded framework for the assessment of the level of resilience of healthcare systems and organizations, and specific actionable changes that should be pursued to consolidate and improve that level of resilience. Ultimately, this work identifies desirable paths of action through the investigation of real-world cases to improve health systems and organizations capacity and capability to face any future dramatic crisis. Cover RESILIENT HEALTH SYSTEMS European Health Management in Transition RESILIENT HEALTH SYSTEMS: What We Know; What We Should Do Copyright CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ABOUT THE AUTHORS FOREWORD 1. If You Stay Ready, You Won't Have to Get Ready 1.1 COVID-19. The Ultimate Test for Health System Resilience (but Not the First or the Last) 1.2 Health System Resilience: What We Do and What We Don't Know 1.2.1 In Search of a Definition 1.2.2 Meaningfulness 1.2.3 Foundations of the Resilience of Health Systems 1.2.4 Synopsis 1.3 Filling the Gap. From Theory to Practice 2. Naming and Framing Health System Resilience 2.1 Health System – A Definition 2.2 Resilience – A Definition 2.3 Health System Resilience – A Definition 2.4 Factors That Contribute Positively to Health System Resilience 2.4.1 Information 2.4.2 Resources 2.4.3 Governance 2.4.4 External Environment 3. Key Ingredients for a Resilient Health System 3.1 Information 3.1.1 Health Information System Health Surveillance System Other Health Data Sources in a Health Information System 3.1.2 Health Communication 3.2 Resources 3.2.1 Human Resources in Healthcare Workforce Density and Distribution Skills and Training Motivation 3.2.2 Physical and Material Resources in Healthcare Health Facilities, Medical Equipment and Medicines 3.2.3 Health Financing Health Financing for Universal Healthcare Short-Term Financing Mechanisms 3.2.4 Resource Planning 3.3 Governance 3.3.1 System Governance Leadership for Health Crisis Management Favouring Accountability in a Crisis Health System Coordination and Cooperation 3.3.2 Sector Governance International Collaboration and Coordination Civil Society Engagement Industrial Sector Engagement 3.4 External Environment 3.4.1 Multi-sectoral Collaboration and Coordination Health Policy Sectors 3.4.2 Public Trust 3.4.3 Legal Environment Extraordinary Executive Powers Flexible Regulatory Frameworks 4. A Framework for Action 4.1 Rationale 4.2 The Ciclad Framework 5. Case Study: Lessons from the Italian health system 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Regional Differences in Decentralized Health Systems 5.3 The Italian Health System Experience 5.3.1 Communication 5.3.2 Intelligence 5.3.3 Capacity and Capability 5.3.4 Legal Support 5.3.5 Accountability and Good Governance 5.3.7 Diffused Leadership 5.4 Conclusions 6. Making Things Happen 6.1 Executing Change 6.2 Final Remarks REFERENCES INDEX