Health Systems Performance Analysis

Rationale

In this course, we look at how health systems can be strengthened through improving the performance of organisations. We use a performance framework to identify and analyse the problems that are underlying at the root of poor performance of the organisations that make up the health system. These include districts, NGOs, hospitals, disease control programmes, Ministry of Health departments, research centres, etc. Developing better health care organisations and systems can only start from a systematic assessment of performance that acknowledges the social complexity of health systems. This is indeed the starting point of strategic management decisions of any organisation.

More specifically, students will learn to apply the multipolar performance framework, which provides a comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach to analyse health care organisations and health systems taking their complexity into account. The MPF is best considered as a meta-framework that allows using various tools and techniques in the analysis of specific organisational functions. This analysis enables not only a solid understanding of the current performance but also the identification of avenues for improvement. Starting from their own organisation, participants will gain capabilities useful in the management of health organisations at any level of the health system.

This 3-week course is relevant for health care organisation managers (including managers of hospitals, local health systems, NGOs and network organisations), health programme managers, policymakers and policy implementers, as well as for researchers involved in or interested in performance analysis of health care organisations and health systems in general.

The course includes perspectives from several disciplines such as public health, management, political science, organisational theory, complexity, and health systems research. The ITM teaching team has a long experience with the assessment of performance of health care organisations and systems, and with teaching and using the multipolar performance framework in low-, middle- and high-income countries.