HIS Lesson 2&3

Health System

All organizations, people, and actions whose primary interest is to promote, restore, or maintain health.

Alma-Ata Declaration

A declaration stating that health is a fundamental human right and that the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important worldwide social goal requiring action from many social and economic sectors.

Primary Health Care (PHC)

Essential health care made universally accessible and acceptable to individuals through full participation and at a cost the community and country can afford.

Health Care System (Miller-Keane, 1987)

An organized plan of health services.

Health Care Delivery (Williams-Tungpalan, 1981)

The rendering of health care services to the people.

Health Care Delivery System (Williams-Tungpalan, 1981)

The network of health facilities and personnel which carries out the task of rendering health care to the people.

Philippine Health Care System (Dizon, 1977)

A complex set of organizations interacting to provide an array of health services in the Philippines.

Equitable Distribution of Health Care

A core principle stating that primary care and other services must be provided equally to all individuals regardless of gender, age, caste, urban/rural location, or social class.

Multi-Sectoral Approach

A core principle recognizing that health cannot be improved by interventions within the formal health sector alone, and that other sectors are equally important.

Appropriate Technology

Medical technology that is accessible, affordable, feasible, and culturally acceptable to the community.

Planning

A health care management function focused on setting a direction, determining what needs to be accomplished, setting priorities, and establishing performance targets.

Organizing

A health care management function focused on designing the organization, division, unit, or service, as well as designating reporting relationships, teamwork assignments, and authority distribution.

Staffing

A health care management function focused on acquiring and retaining human resources and assigning individuals to positions based on Key Result Areas (KRAs).

Controlling

A health care management function focused on monitoring staff activities and performance and taking appropriate corrective actions.

Directing

A health care management function focused on initiating action through effective leadership, motivation, and communication.

Authority

The formal and legitimate right to make decisions, issue orders, and allocate resources.

Responsibility

An employee's duty to perform assigned tasks or activities.

Accountability

Reporting and justifying task outcomes to superiors in the chain of command.

Line Authority

Formal power to direct and control immediate subordinates directly.

Functional Authority

Formal power over a specific subset of activities.

Staff Authority

Authority granted to specialists in their areas of expertise to advise, recommend, and counsel without giving orders.

Centralization

The location of decision-making authority near top organizational levels.

Decentralization

The location of decision-making authority near lower organizational levels.

Formalization

The written documentation used to direct and control employees.

DOH Mandate (E.O. No. 119, Sec. 3)

The promotion, protection, preservation, or restoration of the health of the people through service provision and regulation.

Primary Level Health Facilities

Units such as rural health units (RHUs), sub-centers, chest clinics, malaria eradication units, schistosomiasis units, puericulture centers, private/industrial clinics, and community health centers.

Secondary Level Health Facilities

Smaller, non-departmentalized hospitals (including emergency and regional hospitals) providing care for symptomatic stages of disease requiring moderate specialization.

Tertiary Level Health Facilities

Medical centers, large hospitals, and specialized national hospitals offering highly technological, sophisticated, and specialized services for serious conditions.

Village or Grassroot Health Workers

The first contacts of the community and initial links of health care who provide simple curative and preventive measures (e.g., community health workers, volunteers, and traditional birth attendants).

Intermediate Level Health Workers

The first source of professional health care attending to problems beyond the competence of village workers (e.g., medical practitioners, nurses, and midwives).

First Line Hospital Personnel

Health professionals who provide backup health services for cases requiring hospitalization (e.g., physicians with specialty, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists).

System (Bertalanffy, 1968)

An arrangement of parts and their interconnections coming together for a purpose.

Health System (Roemer, 1991)

The combination of resources, organization, financing, and management that culminate in the delivery of health services to the population.

Health System (WHO Report, 2000)

All the organizations, institutions, and resources that are devoted to producing health actions.

Health Action

Any effort—whether in personal health care, public health services, or through intersectoral initiatives—whose primary purpose is to improve health.

Improving the Health of Populations

The overarching goal of a health system, requiring health status to be measured across the entire population and different socioeconomic groups to achieve health equity and reduce disparities.

Improving the Responsiveness of the Health System

A WHO goal focused on providing services in the manner people want or desire by respecting values (dignity, confidentiality, non-discrimination) and placing users at the center of healthcare.

Fairness in Financial Contribution

Ensuring social and financial risk protection so that paying for health care does not impoverish individuals or families, with costs proportional to ability to pay rather than risk of illness.

Health Service Provision

A vital health system function encompassing the delivery of public and private health services, including preventive measures and health promotion.

Health Service Inputs (Resource Generation)

A vital health system function involving the assembly of essential resources such as human resources, medications, technology, and medical equipment.

Stewardship

A vital health system function involving overall system oversight and policy frameworks; primarily a governmental responsibility to guide public priorities, set rules, collect surveillance data, and enforce regulations.

Health Financing

A vital health system function that consists of collecting revenue, pooling financial risks, and strategic purchasing.

Revenue Collection

Gathering money via general taxation, payroll contributions, out-of-pocket expenses, or donor financing.

Risk Pooling

Collecting and managing funds to spread financial risks across all pool members to protect against sudden health costs.

Strategic Purchasing

How risk-pooling organizations use collected funds to purchase or finance health services for members efficiently.

Bismarck Model

A global health system model based on Bismarck's Law on Health Insurance of 1883 that uses non-profit insurance plans ("sickness funds") financed jointly by employers and employees via payroll deductions, with tight state price regulation over mostly private providers.

Beveridge Model

A global health system model named after social reformer William Beveridge, where health care is provided and directly financed by the government through tax payments, with state-owned facilities or state-funded healthcare workers.

Service Delivery (WHO Framework)

Delivering effective, safe, and quality personal/non-personal health interventions to those who need them with minimal resource waste.

Health Workforce (WHO Framework)

Maintaining responsive, fair, competent, and efficiently distributed health staff.

Information (WHO Framework)

Ensuring timely production, analysis, and use of reliable health data and system performance metrics.

Medical Products, Vaccines, and Technologies (WHO Framework)

Ensuring equitable access to essential, safe, quality, and cost-effective medical products.

Financing (WHO Framework)

Raising adequate funds to ensure access to services without placing people at risk of financial catastrophe.

Leadership and Governance (WHO Framework)

Establishing strategic policy frameworks, oversight, accountability, coalition-building, and appropriate regulations.

Primary Health Care for All (1970)

A Philippine health reform milestone that developed a largely centralized, government-funded health care system.

Adoption of Primary Health Care (1979)

A Philippine health reform initiative that promoted participatory management of the local health care system.