The Center for Global Development has convened the Hospitals for Health working group to find ways to improve the performance of hospitals as contributors to health in developing countries while strengthening their integration in the broader health delivery system. The group’s findings will inform the creation of a collaborative body for hospital performance that will facilitate a network of individuals and institutions dedicated to fostering improved policymaking, investment, and management for emerging-market hospitals. A consultation draft of the working group’s report is expected in late September, 2014, and will be presented at the Health Systems Global Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa.
Hospitals are a critical part of health systems worldwide. They serve as the first point of care for many people, offer access to higher level care, and often set standards and provide training for the national health system at large. Hospitals also play a major role in responding to global health priorities from reducing newborn deaths to treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis MDR-TB to delivering basic surgeries, and they are critical to achieving the financial protection goals of universal health coverage.
Despite the centrality of hospitals, hospital policy and performance in low- and middle-income countries has largely been neglected by health policymakers and the development community. While only a small minority of hospitals in emerging economies — mostly private facilities serving higher income groups — meet global standards, even underperforming hospital systems require significant resources and can consume as much 70 percent of government health budgets in some countries regardless of performance.
The working group aims to provide evidence on what works to improve efficiency, safety, effectiveness, and impact of hospital care on health system objectives to help generate a more sensible response from international and domestic actors.
Working Group Members
Lawton Robert Burns, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Anita Charlesworth, Health Foundation
Victoria Fan, Center for Global Development
Gary L. Filerman, Independent
Gerard La Forgia, World Bank
Amanda Glassman, Center for Global Development
Frederico C. Guanais de Aguiar, Inter-American Development Bank
Frédéric Goyet, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
Bruno Holthof, Antwerp Hospital Network
Nandakumar Jairam, Columbia Asia Hospitals
Maureen Lewis, Georgetown University
Giota Panopoulou, Department of Health, Mexico
Kedar Mate, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Weill Cornell Medical College; Harvard Medical School Division of Global Health Equity
Mead Over, Center for Global Development
Alexander S. Preker, Health Investment and Financing
Narottam Puri, NABH
Joseph Rhatigan, Partners in Health
Jim Rice, Management Sciences for Health
Eric de Roodenbeke, International Hospital Federation
Laura Schiesari, National Brazilian Association of Private Hospitals
Hasbullah Thabrany, Center for Health Economics and Policy Studies, Universitas Indonesia
Steven J. Thompson, Johns Hopkins Medicine International
Juan Pablo Uribe, Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia
Miguel Ángel Lezana, Funsalud, Mexico