Health system
Task: You are to undertake a comparative analysis of one aspect of the health system of your selection, and between two countries. At least one country should be Australia.
1. To start with, describe the analytical framework that you will use to undertake your analysis (See slide in ‘Final Session’ of Day 4). This should only take 1-2 paragraphs.
slide in ‘Final Session’ of Day 4
Comparative Health Systems Analysis
To develop your analytical framework:
1. Select the main system component(s) or policy for comparison
• A service delivery model or arrangement, programs implemented to improve health system delivery and outcomes, governance or regulatory arrangements etc.
2. Select countries for comparisons – justify choice
• Based on similar economic position, service orientation, health financing system, health system outcomes etc.
3. Select criteria concerning the main system component or policy, against which you will make direct comparisons (e.g. for a service you might want to compare costs, quality of service delivery, outcomes, for a system arrangement such as financing system you might want to focus on outcomes such as equity, acceptability, impact on access to health services etc.)
4. Select contextual data that might explain differences/similarities (e.g. demographics, GDP, politics…)
2. You will need to provide a clear description of that aspect of the health system that you are comparing, for the two countries. Include the differences and similarities. Note that this section will be predominantly descriptive – and should be kept to a minimum to allow you to apply more analytical thinking to the next two sections.
3. Provide reasons for any inter-country similarities and differences using relevant contextual information (e.g. cultural, demographic, historical, political, organisational, and/or financial systems arrangements etc.). Where applicable, use relevant research findings sourced from reputable sources that might be available to provide an explanation for one or more differences observed. Note that research evidence may not be directly related to your countries of interest specifically but could be relevant to that aspect of the health system that you are exploring (e.g., evidence suggesting barriers or enablers to the implementation of a particular type of service or service arrangement may be reported for an entirely separate country).
4. Make recommendations for both countries (e.g. consider or adopt aspects of the other country’s system, to keep the status-quo, or to explore other evidence based options). Recall ‘reverse innovation’ covered in class. Give justification for your choice.
Word count: 3000 words (allow +/- 10%). Marks will be lost if your assignment exceeds the total word limit. The word limit does not include the list of references. You can use up to 2 boxed items (e.g, figures, tables of data). These will not be included in the word count. Please use it.
Guidance in structure and concentration of effort:
• Your introduction is to incorporate Task 1 above.
• A quality aspect of your main piece will be the use of the current research literature to support your main points.
• Provide a conclusion at the end of your written piece that neatly sums up your main points.
• Avoid the use of dot point unless absolutely necessary.
Quality assessment criteria
As well as meeting the above task specific requirements, your report should demonstrate (and will also be assessed against):
• Clarity and logic in the expression of ideas and concepts presented (including concise writing)
• Demonstrated comprehension of the subject material
• Evaluation and application of evidence/information derived from other sources (including class material/readings)
• Quality in presentation
• Originality
• Analytical in nature – not just descriptive
• Appropriate use of citations and referencing
Citation style: Note that the citation style you use for your written work must be consistent and follow a standard style.
Recommended (but not compulsory) APA 6th style.
Please note that it is quality not quantity of resources (references) used, though it is expected that you would use at least 19 sources for other than descriptive purposes. Please use more references and fully back it up with those references.
Submission Procedures: Please follow these instructions when submitting your assignment
• Submit via Turnitin on the LMS. (The submission point will be posted in ‘Assessment’ folder)
• Ensure spacing of the text is 1.5
• Submit as word rather than PDF document. This will allow comments to be inserted directly into your assignment and checking of word count.
……………………Answer preview……………
Health sector performance is very crucial aspect of any nation and policy makers depend of performance statistics to make improvement recommendations. The performance of the health sector is so important that nations have set aside resources to facilitate reforms what improve healthcare performance (Bergstrom, Skeen, Duc, Blandon, Estabrooks, et al. 2015). It is not easy to measure performance though and many statisticians find it helpful to come up with a detailed framework for that purpose with a clearly defined set of system objectives against which outcomes can be assessed and a quantification of performance………………………..
APA
3530 words
