Do You Have a Health Systems Mentality?
Download the Anatomy of a Health System which Dr. Beracoachea references in this video.
Welcome to Realizing Global Health! I am Dr. Elvira Beracochea—I am the president, CEO and founder of Realizing Global Health. We are a global health consulting company where we help our clients develop self-reliant, sustainable, health systems that deliver quality health care to everyone everywhere every day. We do that because we understand how global health works. We have a very clear understanding of how to make a big impact in global health. We understand how health systems work.
In this series of videos we are going to talk about the foundations of global health. When you understand the foundations you can really make a bigger impact. One of the things I always say is that there isn’t a real textbook on how to do global health. Everybody sort of does it their own way. We are still in that stage where people are trying to find the best way of doing it. This is the best way, as we have demonstrated that we CAN make a bigger impact by focusing on how to improve the way the health system works.
We have to understand everything we do has an impact on the health system. The health system is like a pyramid that has three levels. At the top is the governance level, next is the leadership level and then the healthcare delivery level. We need to make sure that these three levels are working well together because everything we do will impact how well the health system is going to work. I want you to stop thinking about projects. Change the project mentality to a health systems mentality in which we make sure that these three levels (and the people that work within the three levels) are performing at the best that they can.
The governance level is where we have planning, policies, monitoring, evaluations, health information systems and surveillance, plus budgeting and coordination among all of the partners and stakeholders. All of that happens at the governance level and without this level, we do not have a well-functioning structure.
At the leadership level, we have all of the leaders who are going to make sure that we deliver quality healthcare. This level is made up of hospitals, specialists, academia, teaching hospitals, and universities that are going to train the next generation of health professionals. This leadership level is also where we have the national health centers and institutes of health that really lead the advancement of the practice of healthcare in the country.
At the delivery level, we have the health facilities that deliver healthcare day in and day out. This is the basic foundation. You have hundreds, thousands of health centers and clinics that are private, public or non-profit run by groups such as faith-based organizations, for example. All of these are delivering health care and one thing they have to have in common is that they all must deliver healthcare according to the same standards of care.
Again, we need to have an understanding of the health system, its three levels, and how what you do is going to impact and improve the performance of each of these levels. With that understanding of the health system, we are ready to move to the next class when we will talk about health programs. How do health programs work within a health system? How can we improve them?
Remember, we are talking about really realizing global health and that is where you come in! So, I hope that you stay in touch and I will see you next time!
