PubMed · 10117125
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D M Berwick. Seeking systemness.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10117125/
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This paper uses secondary data analysis and a literature review to explore a "Swedish Dilemma": Can Sweden continue to provide a high level of comprehensive health services for all regardless of ability to pay--a policy emphasizing "solidarity"--or must it decide to impose increasing constraints on health services spending and service delivery--a policy emphasizing "cost containment?" It examines recent policies and longer term trends including: changes in health personnel and facilities; integration of health and social services for older persons; introduction of competition among providers; cost sharing for patients; dismantling of dental insurance; decentralization of government responsibility; priority settings for treatment; and encouragement of the private sector. It is apparent that the Swedes have had considerable success in attaining cost containment--not primarily through "market mechanisms" but through government budget controls and service reduction. Further, it appears that equal access to care, or solidarity, may be adversely affected by some of the system changes.
Medical education and training programs generally have been slow to introduce curriculum content that reflects important changes in practice organization and health services delivery. However, impetus for curricular reform is gaining momentum as national organizations endorse new content for both medical school and residency education. The authors and colleagues at Tufts Managed Care Institute reviewed nine reports by key national organizations to assess their positions on curricular reform in light of changes in practice and the system of care. The reports agree generally on the evolving nature of practice, the need to address these changes during medical school and residency training, and the description of the new curriculum content that they advocate. The authors grouped these reports' specific recommendations under ten curriculum domains: health care system overview; population-based care; quality measurement and improvement; medical management; preventive care; physician-patient communication; ethics; teamwork and collaboration; information management and technology; and practice management. They describe the reports' rationales and cite specific knowledge and skills that these national organizations identify within each domain. This domain-based framework synthesizes and complements the recommendations of these national organizations. The authors conclude that implementing curricular reform remains a challenge. The information and competencies need to be organized and sequenced for stage of training and specialty, and barriers to change require strategic and operational planning. Having a common nomenclature and framework will facilitate the introduction of new content within schools and programs, across departments, and among institutions nationwide.
Less than three years after initiating a series of health service reforms, the Blair government has launched another plan for the U.K. National Health Service. This article considers the origins and contents of the plan. A major investment program is designed to bring health care spending up to European averages over the next five years. In return, the government seeks to challenge the existing settlement between organized medicine and the state through tighter regulatory control, altered contractual frameworks, and a new public-private concordat. The plan does not represent a radical change in government policy but rather reaffirms existing approaches to increasing access to health services, integrating health and social care, and empowering users. Notwithstanding arrangements to increase the autonomy of health service organizations, the plan increases central control through a range of new bodies and regulatory frameworks. It represents an incremental adjustment of the existing tax-funded system. Should this reinvigoration of the state monopoly fail, alternative sources of funding will no doubt have to be reconsidered.