Organizational Policy

A national patient safety policy is essential but it must reflect the context and needs of the individual country. To avoid reinventing the wheel, patient safety policy must reference internationally approved and tested guidelines and policy recommendations. Policy-makers require an accessible resource for the task of developing the national patient safety policy and patient safety strategic plan in order that they are comprehensive as well as precise and yet uncomplicated and flexible. [from introduction]

When aligned with a school’s strategic planning efforts, the Dean’s Dashboard offers the potential for regular reports on progress toward strategic goals as well as management information in a form that is easily accessible to institutional leaders. As an open source application, it is an affordable tool for information management and presentation. [from introduction]

Given the global health worker crisis, now more than ever there is a critical need to improve the productivity of the existing health workforce and maximize service delivery efficiencies to ensure quality family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH), HIV and AIDS, maternal and child health, and other health services as well as further progress towards universal health coverage. This course explores some basic concepts of health workforce productivity. [from resource]

Health systems interventions, such as capacity-building of health workers, are implemented across districts in order to improve performance of healthcare organisations. However, such interventions often work in some settings and not in others. Local health systems could be visualised as complex adaptive systems that respond variously to inputs of capacity building interventions, depending on their local conditions and several individual, institutional, and environmental factors.

Patient’s satisfaction is one indicator of healthcare quality. Few studies have examined the inpatient experiences in resource-scarce environments in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines patient’s satisfaction on the public medical wards at a Kenyan referral hospital, we performed a cross-sectional survey focused on patient’s satisfaction with medical information and their relationship with staffing and hospital routine. Ratings of communication with providers, efforts to protect privacy, information about costs, food, and hospital environment were also elicited. [adapted from abstract]

One of the main goals of Human Resource Management (HRM) is to increase the performance of organizations. However, few studies have explicitly addressed the multidimensional character of performance and linked HR practices to various outcome dimensions. This study therefore adds to the literature by relating HR practices to three outcome dimensions: financial, organizational and employee (HR) outcomes. Furthermore, we will analyze how HR practices influence these outcome dimensions, focusing on the mediating role of job satisfaction. [from abstract]

Participation is a key policy concept in global health, and relates to the ability of stakeholders to engage with and shape health policy at four intersecting levels: Local, national, regional and global. Such engagement remains the key normative aim behind debates about furthering more equitable health diplomacy and has, as a result, been increasingly integrated into the agenda of global agencies, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the World Bank. [from executive summary]

Health policies impact on nursing profession and health care. Nurses’ involvement in health policy development ensures that health care is safe, of a high quality, accessible and affordable. Numerous factors influence nurse leaders’ ability to be politically active in influencing health policy development. These factors can be facilitators or barriers to their participation. There is scant research evidence from Eastern African region that draws
attention to this topic. This paper reports part of the larger study. [from abstract]

The Chatham House Working Group on Health Governance was formed to consider, in the first instance, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the international system that supports global health. This was done in the knowledge that the WHO had recently embarked on a programme of reform, which had its roots in the acute funding pressures that it was experiencing. It was therefore
envisaged as a complementary exercise to the internal reform process. [from preface]

Our study highlights the importance of supply-side barriers to health services utilization. To meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality, policymakers should make additional investment in improving the availability of infrastructure. [from abstract]

This new toolkit provides information, and promotes discussion and self-assessment for regulatory structures in all stages of development. It identifies and describes effective models of regulation and regulatory board governance, and also explores the core functions of a regulatory authority. The purpose of the accompanying PowerPoint presentation is to support exploration of content with local groups and Boards. [from introduction]

Reflecting on service delivery in northern, rural or remote Canada, Dr. Roger Strasser (Dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine) and Erin Leith (Director, Collaboration for Innovation and Improvement, Canadian Foundation of Healthcare Improvement) discuss the significant momentum generated by the Canadian Recruit and Retain Conference and the influence and impact this will have on healthcare in these often under-served regions. [from introduction]

The NGO Code of Conduct for Health Systems Strengthening is a response to the recent growth in the number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) associated with the increase in aid flows to the health sector. It is intended to be used as a tool for service organizations and eventually for funders and host governments. The code serves as a guide to encourage NGO practices that contribute to building public health systems and discourage those that are harmful. [from introduction]

The goal of this policy is to help management and staff minimize the risk of TB transmission in health care facilities and other facilities where the risk of transmission of TB may be high due to high prevalence of both diagnosed and undiagnosed TB such as prisons.

The purpose of this document is to provide Africa 2010’s strategy for strengthening regional and local capacity for adopting effective policies and innovations to improve the health status of Africans. [from introduction]

Because the demand for health services outstrips the available resources, priority setting is one of the most difficult issues faced by health policy makers, particularly those in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to describe priority setting in a teaching hospital in Uganda and evaluate the description against an ethical framework for fair priority setting processes. [from abstract]

This document contains suggestions for creating a workplace violence policy, a sample corporate policy and a sample workplace violence policy statement.

These guidelines are designed as a practical tool to help businesses implement effective malaria control programmes in order to protect their employees and the surrounding communities. They are also intended to make the case, from social, economic and business perspectives, for businesses to do so. The guidelines provide companies with a framework for choosing suitable malaria control interventions and give detailed information on how employers can initiate and manage these activities. [author’s description]

With globalisation trends, the emigration of highly skilled persons from developing countries has significantly increased. The implication of this movement of skilled labour (termed as “the brain drain”) has emerged as an important issue of international debate in recent years. The objective of the paper is to look at different possible policy responses which can minimize its adverse effects, and which can promote the sharing of gains between source and host countries. The paper focuses on three policy approaches: retention, return and circulation of skills. It argues that the best strategy to deal with the problem of loss of skilled labour is one based on the concept of circulation of skills, which yields mutual benefits for both sending and host countries.

This publication provides an overview of some of the key challenges for policy-makers in addressing the linkages between migration, health and human rights.The first section explains why we are addressing the issue of migration and health and what is meant by doing this through a human rights framework. It then explores some of the terminology used. The second section links the reasons why people migrate with the health and human rights implications of moving on the populations left behind. The third section considers the health implications for those on the move both in the context of public health as well as in relation to the health of the individual.

This paper should be read in association with its companion paper on migration and human rights (Bueno de Mesquita and Gordon 2005). Our aims are conceptual and agenda-setting. In essence, we argue that current policy responses to migration of health professionals from low income developing countries underestimate the pressures and misidentify the reasons for rising migration, overestimate the impact of recruitment policies on migration flows while ignoring unintended side effects, and mis specify the ethical dilemmas involved.

An honest and critical examination of the role of Health Care Professionals (HCPs) during communicable disease outbreaks is needed in order to provide guidelines regarding professional rights and responsibilities, as well as ethical duties and obligations. With this paper, we hope to open the social dialogue and advance the public debate on this increasingly urgent issue. [summary]

Establishing a salary policy is a critical function of human resource administration which serves to support the organization’s most valuable asset, its human resources. A salary policy should be equitable, structured and clearly understood. By following these components of a salary policy and answering the questions posed, an organization can reflect on its past and present salary policy and establish a salary policy that is sound. [author’s description]

This toolkit includes a collection of HRM resources and links assembled for the Global Health 2005 conference. Most of the resources are in Microsoft Word format and provide guidance on how to develop a variety of HRM documents or processes. Topics covered include supervision, hiring and recruitment, HR policies, and HIV Workplace Programs and training. [publisher’s description]