Health, Nutrition and Population
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Publication Performance-Based Contracting for Health Services in Developing Countries : A Toolkit(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Loevinsohn, BenjaminThis toolkit provides practical advice to anyone involved in, or who is interested in becoming involved in, performance-based contracting of health services with non state providers in the context of developing countries. It addresses many of the issues that may be encountered. Input from experienced contracting professionals will give newcomers increased confidence as they go forward. Experts directly involved in contracting on a large scale have contributed to the development of this toolkit. The first section provides summary before moving on to the main part of the toolkit. The section provides background on contracting, including definitions of key terms, the types of services that can be contracted, how contracting relates to other ways of organizing health services, and which contracting approaches work in different settings. The third section provides a systematic way of thinking about contracting and how to do it in practice. It looks at seven aspects of the contracting process from initial dialogue with stakeholders through carrying out the bidding process and managing contracts. This framework will help ensure a systematic consideration of the choices and challenges. The fourth section provides checklist which contains tasks and issues to address while designing and implementing a contract. The checklist can also be used to review an existing contract to see what is missing or could be improved. The fifth and final section reviews the evidence for contracting in developing countries, explores why contracting appears to work, and addresses concerns that have been expressed about contracting.Publication Innovations in Health Service Delivery : The Corporatization of Public Hospitals(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003) Preker, Alexander S.; Harding, April; Preker, Alexander S.; Harding, AprilThe question of how best to run our hospitals has been a subject of intense interest for decades with a strong focus over the past 15 years. Hospital care is the largest expenditure category in the health systems of both industrialized and developing countries. Although hospitals play a critical role in ensuring delivery of health services, less is known about how to improve the efficiency and quality of care provided. This book, a well-documented collection of case studies, is an attempt to examine the design, implementation and impact of reforms that introduced market forces in the public hospital sector; and tries to answer three questions: a) what problems did this type of reform try to address; b) what are the core elements of their design, implementation, and evaluation; and c) is there any evidence that this type of reform is successful in addressing problems for which they were intended?. It also provides some insights about recent trends in the reform of public hospitals, with an emphasis on organizational changes such as increased management autonomy, corporatization, and privatization.Publication Private Participation in Health Services(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003) Harding, April; Preker, Alexander S.; Harding, April; Preker, Alexander S.Private participation in health services is often a controversial issue, although many countries already make use of private services to further aims in health care. The book draws on a wide range of country experience to provide a judicious blend of practical advice and useful information on health services privatization issues. It discuses how to assess the potential for private sector involvement, how to engage in contracting with the private sector for health services, and how to regulate the sector. It also provides advice on what to do when key information is not there: a crucial element of any strategy, especially in developing countries where data and information sources are scarce. With the decline of ideology, politicians have grown increasingly fond of the dictum "What is best is what works." This book is an excellent lesson on what works in health care, or more precisely, on how to make what works work better, especially with respect with to the involvement of the private sector. Only with a good public-private mix can we achieve our goal of improving health care for all.Publication Better Health Systems for India's Poor : Findings, Analysis, and Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002) Peters, David H.; Yazbeck, Abdo S.; Sharma, Rashmi R.; Ramana, G. N. V.; Pritchett, Lant H.; Wagstaff, AdamThis report focuses on four areas of the health system in which reforms, and innovations would make the most difference to the future of the Indian health system: oversight, public health service delivery, ambulatory curative care, and inpatient care (together with health insurance). Part 1 of the report contains four chapters that discuss current conditions, and policy options. Part 2 presents the theory, and evidence to support the policy choices. The general reader may be most interested in the overview chapter, and in the highlights found at the beginning of each of the chapters in part 2. These highlights outline the empirical findings, and the main policy challenges discussed in the chapter. The report does not set out to prescribe detailed answers for India's future health system. It does however, have a goal: to support informed debate, and consensus building, and to help shape a health system that continually strives to be more effective, equitable, efficient, and accountable to the Indian people, and particularly to the poor.