Improving Hospital Performance

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Improving Hospital Performance through

Policies to Increase Hospital Autonomy:


Implementation Guidelines

Mukesh Chawla
Research Associate
Data for Decision Making Project
Department of Population and International Health
Harvard School of Public Health

Ramesh Govindaraj
Research Associate
Data for Decision Making Project
Department of Population and International Health
Harvard School of Public Health

August 1996
Data for Decision Making Project i

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 1

1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 2

2. How Use the Guidelines .................................................................................. 5

3. Identification of Hospitals ................................................................................ 7


The Present Structure of Decision Making ....................................................... 8
Performance Evaluation .................................................................................. 8
End-of-Section Checklist ............................................................................... 13

4. Decision Making .......................................................................................... 14


End-of-Section Checklist ............................................................................... 18

5. The Process ................................................................................................ 19


End-of-Section Checklist ............................................................................... 20

6. Design ........................................................................................................ 22
Nature and Extent of Autonomy .................................................................... 23
Relationship of Hospital Autonomy and Health Sector Reforms ...................... 25
Organizational Models .................................................................................. 26
Models of Autonomy .................................................................................... 28
Internal Organization .................................................................................... 29
Performance Evaluation System .................................................................... 30
Consensus-Building and Goal Attainment ...................................................... 32
End-of-Section Checklist ............................................................................... 33

7. Key Areas ................................................................................................... 34


Governance and Administration .................................................................... 35
Finance ........................................................................................................ 38
Human Resources Management .................................................................... 39
Procurement ................................................................................................. 40
Hospital Information Systems ....................................................................... 40
End-of-Section Checklist ............................................................................... 42

8. End Note .................................................................................................... 44

References ....................................................................................................... 45
Data for Decision Making Project 1

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) Washington through the AFR/SD/Health and Human
Resources for Africa (HHRAA) Project, under the Health Care Financing and
Private Sector Development portfolio, whose senior technical advisor is
Abraham Bekele.

Hope Sukin and Abraham Bekele of the HHRAA project at the Africa Bureau
reviewed and gave technical input to the report.
2 Implementation Guidelines

1. Introduction

Public hospitals are a significant component of health systems in many


developing countries. Generally responsible for 50 to 80 percent of recurrent
government health sector expenditure (Barnum and Kutzin, 1993), public
hospitals utilize nearly half of the total national health expenditure (Mills,
1990). In many African countries the bulk of hospital spending is tied up in
one or two major urban hospital facilities. These hospitals consume a large
amount of scarce resources, and many tend to have low occupancy rates.
Governments therefore face the task not only of finding new resources to
fund the high cost activities of the hospitals, but also of utilizing existing
resources more efficiently. Faced with diminishing resources and escalating
costs, the need to use public resources more cost-effectively has never been
greater.

Some governments have recently taken the decision to grant greater


autonomy to hospital operations in the expectation that it may offer a means
to both reducing the financial burden of hospitals on governments and
strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of public hospitals. However,
relatively little research has been directed towards evaluating the experiences
of these hospitals, and assessing the overall merits and limitations of hospital
autonomy as public policy. As part of the overall strategy of US Agency for
International Development (USAID) to conduct research into matters of
critical importance to policy makers in developing countries, the Data for
Decision Making (DDM) project at Harvard University was commissioned by
the Health and Human Resources Analysis for Africa (HHRAA) project of the
Africa Bureau to conduct five case-studies on hospital autonomy. These
studies were conducted in Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe within sub-Saharan
Africa, and in India and Indonesia outside Africa.
The objectives of this research were (a) to describe different approaches
which have been taken in different parts of the world to improve
performance of public hospitals through increased autonomy, and to improve
allocative efficiency of government health spending by shifting public funds
away from public hospitals; (b) to analyze factors which contribute to
successful implementation of a strategy to increase hospital autonomy; and
(c) to formulate a set of guidelines to support the design of policies to
improve hospital performance through greater autonomy.
Data for Decision Making Project 3

At the onset of the project, a provisional conceptual framework was


proposed by the principal investigators at Harvard University. This framework
was intended to guide the assessment of the autonomy effort in each
participating country, and assist in organizing the presentation of the data
and results (see Chawla and Berman, 1995). The evaluation framework
suggested a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses of the
experience of the study hospitals with autonomy. The four evaluative criteria
used in assessing hospital autonomy in each country, based on the project
guidelines, were efficiency, equity, public accountability, and quality of care.
The research methodology employed in undertaking the studies included
secondary data collection and analysis, direct observation by the study
teams, interviews, and field surveys.

This general framework was subsequently modified by the project teams in


course of their enquiry, and based on the experiences of the research teams,
the general framework of 1995 was revised in a later edition (Chawla et al,
1996). Known as Methodological Guidelines for Evaluating Autonomy, the
framework suggests that the important issues in evaluating hospital
autonomy can be addressed in the form of the following questions:

• Description of the nature and extent of its autonomy.


• Description of the process by which autonomy has been extended to
the hospital.
• Description of the structure of hospital management, organization,
internal systems and practices, and any changes that may have
occurred to reflect the level of autonomy the hospital has.
• Description and analysis of the impact of autonomy, in terms of the
effect of autonomy on efficiency, equity, quality of care, public
accountability, and resource mobilization.
• Identification and description of the major implementation issues in
the extension of autonomy to this hospital, and analysis of the main
lessons learned in the process.
The results, conclusions, and recommendations of each study were then
compiled in a synthesis document (Govindaraj and Chawla, 1996). The
synthesis paper presents the summary findings of the five studies and draws
on them to derive broader lessons on formulating and implementing hospital
autonomy in developing countries. One disconcerting conclusion of the five
case studies undertaken as part of this project is that autonomy in public
sector hospitals has not yielded many of the hoped-for benefits in terms of
efficiency, quality of care, and public accountability - although there have
been occasional and isolated successes. To some extent, this situation might
4 Implementation Guidelines

be explained by the relatively short duration of autonomy enjoyed by the


public sector hospitals, or the instability that often accompanies systemic
reform. However, the evidence from the case studies suggests that a flawed
conceptual basis for hospital autonomy in the public sector, as well as poor
implementation of the autonomy measures, is to be held responsible for the
limited success. Among other things, an inability to successfully transplant
private sector structures and incentives to the public sector hospitals,
institutional conflicts and inertia, limited decision-making and management
capacities, the absence of a comprehensive and sustainable financial plan,
and inadequate information systems have all contributed to the limited
success of the autonomous hospitals to achieve significant change either in
their functioning or performance.

The findings of the five country studies point to the need of improved
conceptual and implementation protocols for decision makers in developing
countries wishing to consider autonomy as an option for bringing about
improvements in hospital performance. These implementation guidelines are
a step in that direction.
Data for Decision Making Project 5

Figure 1.1
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

2. How to Use the Guidelines

The guidelines are designed to be used by countries that are considering


ways of improving the functioning of public hospitals. The focus of the
guidelines is one particular approach for improving performance, i.e., giving
the hospitals greater autonomy. Though the guidelines are organized in a way
that reading and using it alone would be sufficient in most cases, interested
users are strongly encouraged to read and refer to the two companion
documents: Hospital Autonomy: Methodological Guidelines (Chawla,
Govindaraj, Needleman, and Berman, 1996) and Recent Experiences of
Hospital Autonomy: Lessons from Five Country Studies (Govindaraj and
Chawla, 1996).

These guidelines aim to lead government officials in the ministries of health


and finance and hospital directors through the process of evaluating the need
and feasibility of autonomy in the context of existing political, sociocultural,
and economic circumstances. The guidelines provide detailed planning advice
on issues of design, process and restructuring of key areas to reflect
autonomy. It also provides useful advice and insight into the process of
effecting change and highlights some of the common obstacles that come in
way of successful implementation of autonomy.
6 Implementation Guidelines

It is also useful to understand what the guidelines are not. The guidelines are
not a book about management principles. There is no attempt here to apply
theories of organization and management behavior to public hospitals. We
understand that the hospital is a very complex and dynamic organization,
producing a wide variety of goods and services, and in such situations
managers increasingly need to have a more sophisticated understanding of
the organization. These guidelines do not attempt to contribute to this need.
This is not a management text, but a guide to help planners and managers
improve their performance through a better understanding of the broad scope
of issues related to hospital autonomy.

The rest of the guidelines are organized according to figure 1. We


recommend starting with an evaluation of the structure and management of
the targeted hospital, and assessing the performance of the hospital.
Decision making is considered in the next section. If the decision is taken to
give greater autonomy to the public hospital, issues of design, process and
key interventions become relevant and important. These are discussed in the
next three sections.
A checklist is placed at the end of each section, indicating the kind of
information that ought to have been collected by the end of the section. The
checklist tends to be cumulative, so that a reader examining the list at the
end of the last section would get a good indication of what should have been
achieved by the end of the guidelines.
Data for Decision Making Project 7

Figure 1.2
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines
Identification of Hospitals

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

3. Identification of Hospitals

The process of identification of target hospitals involves seven steps:


Step 1: Make a list of all public hospitals, and classify them according to the
level of services they provide, i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Step 2: Estimate the sum total of government resources each hospital
consumes, both in absolute numbers as well as a percentage of total
government expenditure in the health sector.
Step 3: Identify hospitals believed to be performing poorly, according to criteria
currently being used by the ministry of health or finance, general or medical
community.
Step 4: If there are many hospitals that are believed to be performing poorly,
rate the hospitals according to criteria such as consumption of government funds
so as to choose a manageable number of hospitals that can be targeted for
reform.

Step 5: Describe the present structure of decision making and administration in


this list of selected hospitals.
8 Implementation Guidelines

Step 6: Evaluate performance of the selected hospitals in accordance with how


they meet the criteria of efficiency, equity, accountability, quality of care, and
revenue mobilization.

Step 7: Revise, if necessary, the priorities in the list of hospitals targeted for
reform.

The information required for steps 1 and 2 should be available from the
government in the ministry of health, finance and planning. The preliminary
listing according to step 3 can be performed according to any known or used
procedure, since in any case this will be revised and updated later on.
Prioritizing is recommended since the government reforms are more likely to
succeed if they are concentrated rather than if they are dispersed. Steps 6
and 7 need special attention, and we discuss them in more detail below.

The Present Structure of Decision Making


The starting point of the evaluation is the determination of the present
process of hospital administration. Using the evaluation framework proposed
in Hospital Autonomy: Methodological Guidelines (Chawla et. al, 1996), the
present process of hospital administration can be described along the
functional dimensions of hospital management and hospital policy.

Performance Evaluation
The first step in assessing the performance of the hospital is to describe the
scope and nature of hospital services, such as present inpatient services
(medicine, surgery, pediatrics, maternity, etc.) outpatient services, casualty,
and specific clinics. It is also useful to understand (a) the role and place of
the hospital in the referral system; (b) the rules and procedures that the
hospitals follow for admission of patients to the hospital as private patient,
government paid patient, and government nonpaying patient; and (c) the
number of beds allocated to private patients, government paid patients, and
government nonpaying patients.
Hospital performance can be evaluated in terms of efficiency, quality of care,
accountability, equity and resource mobilization. We discuss these in detail in
Methodological Guidelines (Chawla et al, 1996), and briefly refer to the
concepts here.

Efficiency
The main plank against which performance of the hospital is ultimately assessed
is its capacity to deliver high quality clinical care at least cost. Some measure of
Data for Decision Making Project 9

Table 1

Characteristics of the Present Process of Hospital Administration

Functions Current Status

Health Domain What role, if any, does the hospital play in setting goals for the health sector?

What role, if any, does the hospital play in setting goals for itself?

What is the nature of formal/informal interaction between the hospital and government?

Hospital Domain

Strategic Management Has the hospital defined and described its mission and objectives?

Has the hospital identified areas of interest and expansion?

Has the hospital identified target population needing attention?

What steps, if any, has the hospital taken towards strategic planning and preparing for
implementation?

Who takes these decisions of planning and implementation?

Administration Is the hospital managed by a governing board?

If so, how is the board appointed?

Who constitutes the board?

What is the scope and authority of the board?

How is the Chief Executive Officer appointed?

Who does the Chief Executive Officer report to?

What is the authority and responsibility of the CEO?

Financial Management What are the different sources of revenue for the hospital?

What is the extent of contribution made by the ministry of health and other Government
agencies?

What is the contribution of user fees, if any?

Who sets the fee?

Who controls and retains the fee?

Who bears the risk?

Is there a system for institutional budgeting?

Is the budget broken down into recurrent and capital expenditure components?

If so, what constitute the recurrent budget? the capital budget?

Is there any difference of government control and supervision in these items?

Human Resources Who has the responsibility and authority for making personnel decisions such as
Management recruitment, dismissal, etc.?

What are the different levels of positions within the hospital?

What is the process of determining the salary structure? Is it the same as state
employees?

Procurement Who prepares the list and quantity of drugs required?

Who purchases these drugs? Is it the government or the hospital? If it is the hospital, are
drugs obtained from central stores or from the market?

What is the process of purchase from the market?

Who is responsible for the purchase of medical supplies?

Who is responsible for the purchase of non-medical supplies?

Who is responsible for purchase and maintenance of equipment?

Who is responsible for the maintenance of buildings and premises?

Who is responsible for transportation?


10 Implementation Guidelines

efficiency can thus be obtained by measuring costs and examining the


relationship of costs to services provided.

Hospital costs include recurrent costs (such as maintenance, rent, utilities,


personnel, catering, laundry, linen, and costs of diagnostic, therapeutic, and
other treatment services provided to the patient) and capital costs (such as
land, buildings, plant and equipment).

Hospital services are traditionally measured by the number of outpatient


visits, and the number of inpatient admissions and discharges. Traditional
hospital service indicators are:

• The bed occupancy rate, which is a measure of the percentage of


total available beds which are engaged by patients during the year;
• The average length of stay, which is defined as the average number
of days a patient remains in the hospital between admission and
discharge; and

• The bed turnover rate, which refers to the average number of


inpatients per bed per year.
One approach to evaluating efficiency is to select performance indicators
such as cost per bed day, output of services, rate of return on capital, etc.
and then examine the performance of the hospital in relation to the indicator.
It is important to note, however, that the effectiveness of unit cost studies
can be seriously undermined by differences in the completeness of data
used, and variations in the health, institutional, and economic environment.
In order for a study comparing costs per unit of output to indicate which
hospital is most technically and economically efficient, the following criteria
must hold : (a) the case mix at each hospital must be the same or have been
accounted for; (b) the quality of service must be the same or adjusted; and
(c) the cost information must take into account the social opportunity costs
of resources used. In the absence of these conditions, efficiency
implications of unit cost measures are indeterminate or hard to interpret with
confidence. High unit costs may be a reflection of a number of things such
as high quality, poor efficiency, or the characteristics of patients. On the
other hand, low unit costs could be indicative of poor quality or high
efficiency.

Quality of Care
Changes in quality of health care can be evaluated in terms of the effects of an
intervention on structure, process, and outcome (Donabedian, 1980). These
can be judged along six different dimensions: effectiveness, acceptability,
efficiency, access, equity, and relevance (Maxwell (1984, 1992). This three-by-
Data for Decision Making Project 11

six classification gives eighteen “cells”, or cross-dimensions, and each cell gives
information on two dimensions: where (structure, process, outcome) and what
indicator of quality (effectiveness, acceptability, efficiency, access, equity,
relevance). Quality of care may be assessed by judging each cell against an
established or tested norm, and progress can be assessed by comparing the
cells over time.

Structure and Process


Structural issues affecting the effectiveness of hospital services are: the physical
state of the facility and the equipment; the administrative process;
qualifications, experience and training of the medical and nonmedical staff; and

Table 2

Quality of Care

Structure Process Outcome

Effectiveness facilities, equipment, clinical history, physical patient recovery,


administrative processes, examination, diagnostic restoration of function,
qualifications of medical tests, technical survival, etc.
staff , etc. competence, preventive
management, continuity
of care, etc.

Acceptability physical comforts, explanation of treatment, follow up for


cleanliness, privacy, patient education, etc. improvement, meetings,
counselling, etc. etc.

Efficiency appropriate staffing and administration, comparison of costs for


equipment levels, etc. organization, staffing, similar cases across
operational different units and time
arrangements, etc. periods

Access location, etc. capacity, etc. treatment of wait-listed


patients, etc.

Equity bias in treatment, etc. bias in outcomes, etc.

Relevance usefulness of resources, impact on health status


need for specific for different groups of
services, etc. people, etc.

accreditation of the hospital Patient acceptability of hospital services is


affected by comfort, courtesy, privacy, counseling etc. Appropriate levels of
staffing and equipment are likely to affect efficiency parameters, while
location of the facility may have some impact on access issues. All these are
structural issues in the quality of care paradigm. On the process side are issues
like technical management, diagnostic testing, preventive medicine, patient
education, general administration and organization, capacity, etc. It is not
12 Implementation Guidelines

always easy to separate structure and process in a complex organization like a


hospital, and often it is convenient to assess both together.

Outcomes
Patient recovery, follow up for treatment, and impact on health status for
different groups of people are some of the outcome issues that are important
for assessing quality. Effectiveness in outcomes can be evaluated by looking
at indicators of patient recovery and survival, or alternatively at mortality
rates in the hospital. Patient acceptability can be assessed by using
indicators of follow up visits for improvement. Cost and case-mix
comparisons over time may give some idea of changes in efficiency. Equity
and access may be assessed by looking at the hospital use across income
groups, gender, age, race, and diseases and conditions treated in hospitals.

Equity
Following Wagstaff and Doorslaer (1993) equity can be defined in terms of
finance and delivery of health care. Equity in the finance of health care refers
to the requirement that “persons or families of unequal ability to pay make
appropriately dissimilar payments” for health care (vertical equity), and the
requirement that “persons or families with the same ability to pay make the
same contribution” (horizontal equity). Equity in the delivery of health care
refers to the requirement that “persons in unequal need be treated in an
appropriately dissimilar way” (vertical equity), and the requirement that
“persons in equal need be treated equally” (horizontal equity). (All quotes
are taken from Wagstaff and Doorslaer, 1993).

Accountability
Accountability was of little concern when hospitals were symbolic of
humanitarian efforts for community welfare. Today, however, with hospitals
using an increasing proportion of scarce resources and not using it so
efficiently and effectively, as Schulz and Johnson, 1990, note, there are
many questions of quality and effectiveness. Accountability, rather than
control is increasingly becoming the important issue, with hospitals being
accountable to consumers, individual patients, government and others who
provide funds, regulatory agencies, and own employees. Accountability is an
important factor in the successful use of public resources for the
improvement of community health. According to Bowen (1973), a good system
of accountability would have a clear purpose of goals and objectives, with an
ordering of priorities; allocation of resources toward maximum return in relation
to goals and objectives; evaluation of actual results; and reporting on evaluation
to all concerned.
Data for Decision Making Project 13

End-of-Section Checklist
Check that the following information is collected by the end of this section:

√ List of all public hospitals

√ Government resource allocation to all hospitals

√ Preliminary list of target hospitals

√ Description of the present administrative process in these hospitals

√ Assessment of performance of these hospitals with regard to efficiency,


quality of care, equity, accountability, etc.

√ Final list of target hospitals, prioritized according to some well-defined


criteria
14 Implementation Guidelines

Figure 1.3
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines
Decision Making

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

4. Decision Making

If the previous analysis indicates that:


• some government hospitals are generally failing in their bid to maximize
public welfare, or are doing so at high cost; and
• these hospitals consume a large share of the government health budget in
the form of capital infusions, subsidies and operational expenses;

then it can be concluded that:

• public production of health in government owned and managed hospitals,


at least in the present form, is not the most efficient way of using
government resources, and an improvement in the present position is
likely to have a major positive impact.

Two solutions often suggested for improvement of hospital performance and


efficiency are:

• Privatization
Data for Decision Making Project 15

• Reforms in the manner of government control and management of


hospitals.

Continued government involvement in the production of health care is


suggested for many reasons:

• Socio-political: There is the popular expectation that governments


should be responsive to the needs of health care for all citizens of the
country.

• Operational: Government investment in production and delivery of


health care has failed to deliver the expected result, not because the
concept was necessarily weak but because it was not implemented
well.
• Economic: Government involvement in health care production and
delivery is justified on many grounds, including the public and merit
good arguments, presence of externalities in health care, and
asymmetry of information.
• Governments are generally believed to be doing the right thing, such
as provide affordable quality health care for all, even if they do not do
it in the right manner. On the other hand, while it is reasonable to
expect that private firms do things right, i.e., efficiently, quickly,
correctly, and innovatively, they may not do the right thing. The ideal
solution thus is to find an institutional combination that does the right
thing and does it right.

Reforms in the manner of government control and management of hospitals


range from fine tuning and marginal reforms in existing structure to more
radical changes such as the provision of functional autonomy to publicly
owned hospitals. While fine tuning and marginal reforms may produce the
necessary improvements in the hospital’s performance if the existing
problems and issues are equally minor, more fundamental situations would
necessarily require more fundamental solutions. One such alternative, though
by no means the panacea (see Govindaraj and Chawla, 1996) is providing the
hospital greater autonomy of decision-making on a host of functions.

A substantial literature exists on the potential benefits and pitfalls of


providing greater autonomy to public hospitals (see reviews by McPake,
1996: Chawla, et al., 1996). While it is not very obvious that the benefits of
autonomy will outweigh the negatives, the popular consensus seems to be
that greater hospital autonomy can lead to significant gains in efficiency,
effectiveness, public accountability, and the quality of care, without a
significant compromise of equity.

• Hospital autonomy may lead to gains in both technical and allocative


16 Implementation Guidelines

efficiency. Various reasons have been cited for these gains: the incentive
structures and other reforms that usually accompany autonomy; the
assumption of greater responsibility by autonomous hospitals; the greater
freedom of autonomous hospitals to choose their optimal production
function, the types and levels of inputs, throughputs, and outputs, and
the overall strategic direction and development agenda.

On the other hand, when autonomy is not associated with incentive


structures, or the incentives are inadequate, the potential benefits of
autonomy may not be fully realized. Autonomy may also lead to a
loss of the benefits of economies of scale and scope, and may thus
increase the inefficiency of the hospital.

• Autonomy is presumed to increase public accountability and consumer


satisfaction. Autonomous hospitals, vested with greater authority,
can be expected to be better able to respond to local community
needs. This is expected to increase public support and acceptance,
and greater community participation in hospital decision-making.
Moreover, the delegation of authority “may be accompanied by a
matching system of control and supervision to ensure the responsible
use of authority”, thereby “leading to improvements in patient
satisfaction” (Chawla and Berman, 1995).
On the other hand, greater hospital autonomy may not be translated
into increased concern and responsiveness to community needs.
Freedom from central control will allow hospitals to place their self-
interest above that of consumers. The most important potential
drawback of providing autonomy to public hospitals may be a
compromise of equity in the financing as well as the delivery of
health care (Chawla and Berman, 1995).
• Autonomy is likely to lead to improvements in the quality of care
provided by hospitals. Greater autonomy accompanied by appropriate
incentives, consumer responsiveness, and public accountability, is
expected to lead to optimal employment of personnel, improvements
in staff performance and attitude towards patients, increased
availability of drugs and services, improved maintenance of facilities
and equipment, etc. - all of which would contribute to improving the
quality of care.
It is important to note that many difficulties can arise when governments
started implementing autonomy, as is brought about in our evaluation of five
countries where hospital autonomy has been implemented (see Govindaraj
and Chawla, 1996 for a summary of country experiences). Our studies
indicate that for the most part governments have relied on legal devices to
ensure that the autonomous concept works as intended. Managerial
Data for Decision Making Project 17

autonomy has been secured by making the government hospital legally


distinct from the state (Kenya, India), by placing it under an independent
board of directors (Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Zimbabwe), or by
excluding their employees from civil service rules and privileges (Kenya), and
allowing them to operate their own bank accounts (Ghana, Kenya, India,
Indonesia, Zimbabwe) and retain surpluses (Kenya, Zimbabwe). In most
cases governments have restricted their own role by legally confining their
role to setting policies and staying out of operational matters, merely
requiring the hospital management to follow government directives on goals
and policies and subjecting them to government audit.

Despite the legal structures in place, however, governments in the ministries


of health and finance dealing with public hospitals have tended to think of
the hospitals as being an extension of the government. Thus, they have been
inclined to focus on issues they are used to controlling in government itself,
such as headcounts, discretionary expenses, etc. Where government
officials have tried to go beyond these issues, they have been constrained by
shortages of time and staff. When government control and supervision has
taken this form, many adverse and dysfunctional consequences have
followed. First, a lot of time is spent and wasted in frequent interventions.
Second, it leaves the managers without any motivation, which reduces
operational efficiency. Third, since so many outsiders make so many internal
decisions, managers cannot be readily held accountable. Fourth, there is a
tendency among managers to spend a great deal of time and effort in finding
ways and means of getting around government rules and controls. And
finally, minor issues consume so much attention that fundamental questions
about objectives and strategy have often remained unaddressed.1

An obvious conclusion seems to be that making the concept of an


autonomous hospital work takes more than just rules and regulations. New
administrative systems, institutions, and personnel are necessary to
coordinate government-autonomous hospital relations, and innovative
methods of managing public hospitals are necessary. The tendency in many
countries of borrowing freely from either private sector (Kenya), or
government management styles (Ghana, India), and using available
institutions and personnel (Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Zimbabwe) to
manage the newly created autonomous hospitals does not seem to work.
Unfortunately, most of these are not appropriate for the hybrid institution
delivering goods and services that have: a strong underlying public and merit
good component; and established externalities in an environment
characterized by a wide diversity between the levels of information available
with the providers and consumers of the product.
We realize that the limited success of autonomous hospitals in both doing the
right things and doing them right2 has led to general disappointment with

1/ Arguments of a similar nature are found in Jones (1980, 1991)

2/ This terminology is commonly used in the relevant literature on public economics. Our use of these terms is
inspired by Ramamurti (1991).
18 Implementation Guidelines

the concept of autonomy, but maintain that the implementation of autonomy in


these countries is more to be flawed than the concept of autonomy itself. New
implementation systems and processes have to be brought about through a
process of experimentation and creative thinking; otherwise, we run the risk of
losing a potentially valuable tool without having applied it properly.

The decision to give greater autonomy to public hospitals should thus be


governed not only by the problems with the existing setup, but also by
readiness and preparedness of the government to take a number of
innovative, and sometimes harsh, steps driven by the will to give the new
systems a chance to perform.

End-of-Section Checklist
By the end of this section it is expected that you would have taken a
decision on the future of the hospital. If the decision is to make marginal
reforms in the existing administrative and control structure, then the rest of
the guidelines offer only academic reading. If, however, the decision in
principle is to give the hospital more autonomy, the remaining sections on
design, process and key interventions are useful.
√ Final list of target hospitals, prioritized according to some well defined
criteria.
√ Preliminary decision regarding autonomy taken.
Data for Decision Making Project 19

Figure 1.4
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines
Process

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

5. The Process

Once the decision to give autonomy to a hospital or a group is taken, the next
step is to create enabling conditions to facilitate implementation. It is important
to recognize that a large number of people and organizations, within the
government, the hospital, members of the public, press, etc. would have the
potential to affect the decision making process, and ignoring their contribution
could well defeat the whole process even before it starts. Within the government
there are the issues of decision-making regarding the type and extent of
autonomy; an assessment of the likely impact of autonomy on government’s
finances, administration and people; political issues such as support and
opposition from different groups; legal issues such as those concerning the
existing laws of the land and the need for change; and personnel-specific issues
that concern government employees in the hospitals.
Within the hospital there are employees’ concerns regarding their future
employment conditions; changing relations between groups of employees,
particularly between medical staff and managerial personnel; union and
collective bargaining issues; scope and nature of the hospital’s services and
expansions; and every mission and goal of the hospital under autonomous
management.
20 Implementation Guidelines

Similarly, within the general public and the press there are concerns regarding:
the role the autonomous hospital will play in meeting community needs and
requirements; changes in resource mobilization strategies that may come about
with autonomy; and the accountability of an autonomous organization to the
community.

Reich (1994) provides a “six-step procedure for describing the issues, key
players, resources, and networks involved in a specific health policy
decision”.

• The first step considers and describes the expected effect of the
health policy along the dimensions of identity, size, timing, and
intensity of the effects.

• The second step identifies the opponents and proponents of the


health policy.
• The third step identifies the major organizations and individuals in the
decision-making processing, and assesses the impact of the policy on
these organizations and individuals.
• The fourth step identifies the formal and informal linkages between
organizations and individuals involved in the policy.

• The fifth step makes an assessment of the major changes in the


responsible organization, and covers the general organizational and
the political environment.

• The sixth and final step analyzes the strategies for influencing the
decision.

End-of-Section Checklist
The process of implementing decisions regarding autonomy thus involve:

√ Final list of target hospitals, prioritized according to some well-defined


criteria.

√ Preliminary decision regarding autonomy taken.


√ A clear enunciation of the government’s objectives for implementing
autonomy, and the expected effect of autonomy on the health sector
from a financial and an administrative perspective.

√ Identification of individuals and groups likely to be directly or indirectly


affected by the autonomy decision.

√ Identification and description of transitions and changes occurring in the


Data for Decision Making Project 21

government that could affect the proposed decision; identification and


description of transitions and changes occurring in the political and
economic environment that could affect the proposed decision.

√ Identification of the major players in the government, political parties,


non-governmental organizations, the private sector, the academic
sector, international agencies, donor groups, hospital personnel, and
the community, who are likely to play a significant role in the decision
making or implementation process, and the importance of this
decision to them.

√ Analysis of the expected support and opposition from these groups.

√ An understanding of all the processes available to utilize this support


and manage opposition.
22 Implementation Guidelines

Figure 1.5
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines
Design

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

6. Design

As we have argued earlier, making the concept of an autonomous hospital work


takes more than just rules and regulations. New and creative management
systems are necessary to effectively administer and coordinate the activities of
the government and the autonomous hospitals. New systems for strategic
planning, financing, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, and personnel
management in public hospitals need to be developed. In short, in order for
hospital autonomy to work, new systems need to be created (or existing ones
overhauled) that are compatible with, and appropriate for, these complex, hybrid
institutions. And these reforms need to be to be instituted as integrated
components (rather than as piecemeal initiatives) of an overall reform of the
health sector in developing countries.
There are several steps involved in the design of an autonomous organization:
Step 1: Decide the nature and extent of autonomy to be given to the hospital.

Step 2: Identify the role of autonomy in the scheme of health reforms.

Step 3: Decide the level of hospital to which autonomy is to be given.


Data for Decision Making Project 23

Step 4: Decide whether any changes are required in the internal organization of
the hospital.

Step 5: Establish a performance evaluation criteria.

Step 6: Take steps toward consensus building.

We will discuss each in turn.

Nature and Extent of Autonomy


Once the decision to give the hospital greater autonomy is taken in principle, the
next step is to decide how much and what type of autonomy is intended to be
given to the hospital. We discuss these issues in Methodological Guidelines
(Chawla et al, 1996), and repeat some of the arguments in the following
section.
Autonomy is defined in the dictionary as “the quality or state of being self-
governing, especially, the right or power of self-government”; “existing or
capable of existing independently”; and “subject to its laws only”. However,
such absolute criteria are of little help in defining hospital autonomy, and the
term “autonomous hospital” has meaning only when used in the sense of
fulfillment of specific criteria for autonomy on which consensus is reached.
In other words, hospitals can only be autonomous within a predefined
context, and in order to gauge the extent of a particular hospital’s autonomy,
it is important to specify the characteristics for each of the hospital’s
management functions of each level of autonomy.
In our framework (see Chawla et al, 1996) we define hospital autonomy
along two dimensions: the extent of centralization of decision-making
(“extent of autonomy”); and the range of policy and management decisions
that are relevant to hospitals (including both policy formulation and
implementation). We believe that these are the appropriate dimensions along
which hospital autonomy should be discussed, for it is the extent of
decentralized decision-making that occurs within the hospital, and the extent
to which such decision-making is feasible for each of the management
functions, that are the relevant considerations.

Table 3 presents our conceptual model in the form of a 6X3 matrix, with the
extent of autonomy and the policy/management functions representing the
two axes of the matrix. Autonomy is conceptualized as a continuum from a
situation where all decisions are made by the owner (public or private), to
one where the system of decision-making and policy formulation is highly
decentralized. We differentiate between decision-making at the macro level, i.e.,
in the national health domain; and the decision-making occurring within the
domain of hospitals. In this continuum, we define 3 stages (1-3) for each of the
policy and management functions.
24 Implementation Guidelines

Table 3

Conceptual Framework for Hospital Autonomy

Policy and Management Extent of Autonomy


Functions

Fully Centralized ---------------------------> Fully Decentralized

Low Autonomy Some Autonomy High Autonomy

a b c

A. Health Domain

Overall Health All decision making Decision making jointly by owner and hospital
Goals entirely by owner management

Hospital Specific All decision making Decision making Decision making


Goals entirely by owner jointly by owner and entirely by hospital
hospital management management

B. Hospital Domain

Strategic Direct control by Governance through a Independently


Management owner: government, board appointed by constituted Board,
parastatal, or private owner, and guided by making independent
owners, but not decisions
subservient to owner

Administration Direct management by Limited powers Independent


owner, who also sets decentralized to management operating
the rules for hospital management; under Board's
management of the owner still weilds directions, with
hospital some influence over significant independent
management decisions decision-making
capacity

Procurement Centralized Combination of Procurement


procurement, with centralized and completely under
owner deciding on decentralized control of hospital
quantities and total procurement management
financial outlay

Financial Full funding by owner; Owner subsidy plus Self-financing; no


Management owner has financial funds through other owner subsidy; funds
control sources, some owner entirely under Board
influence but finances control; significant
generally under independent
Board's control decision-making
capacity for managers

Human Resource Staff appointed by Staff employed by Staff employed by


Management owner; completely Board, and subject to Board; all conditions
under owner's the Board's and regulation set by
regulatory control regulations, but also Board; managers have
subject to owner's significant
regulations decision-making
capacity
Data for Decision Making Project 25

Health domain refers to decisions that are made at the level of the government
or at the government-hospital interface, over which hospitals, typically, have
only limited control. Hospital domain,
domain in contrast, refers to those activities
undertaken within the hospital, over which the hospital management usually
exercises much greater control.

The two health domain functions are: formulating overall (national or state)
health goals (e.g., deciding on national health targets, health programs,
allocation of health resources, etc.), and setting hospital-specific goals (e.g.
deciding on hospital roles and functions, reporting requirements, evaluation
criteria, etc.).

The five hospital domain functions, respectively, are: strategic management,


procurement, financial management, human resource management, and
administration. Strategic management refers to the function of defining the
overall mission of the hospital, setting broad strategic goals, managing the
hospital’s assets, and bearing ultimate responsibility for the hospital’s
operational policies. Procurement refers to the purchase of drugs, medical
and non-medical hospital supplies, and hospital equipment. Financial
management refers to the generation of resources for the running of the
hospital, and the proper planning, accounting, and allocation of these
resources. Human resource management refers to the training and
management of the various categories of hospital personnel. Administration
refers to all the other responsibilities (i.e., other than financial, personnel and
procurement management) involved in the day-to-day running of the hospital
and the discharge of the functions defined by the mission statement. In Table
4, we summarize the specific activities that fall under the purview of the
various policy and management functions described in Table 3.

Relationship of Hospital Autonomy and Health Sector


Reforms
As we have argued elsewhere (see, for instance, Govindaraj and Chawla,
1996) hospital autonomy forms an important part of the whole health reform
package and is inextricably linked to other reforms, such as resource
mobilization, increasing competition, encouraging private sector participation,
etc. Moreover, since hospitals consume a substantial share of health budgets
in many developing countries, reforms related to the functioning of hospitals
and the health system overall tend to be mutually reinforcing. Hospital
autonomy thus has many linkages with other components of the health
system, and often the relationship is such that it is difficult to sustain autonomy
without other reforms, or fully realize the potential of other reforms without
autonomy.
26 Implementation Guidelines

Table 4

Activities within Various Policy and Management Functions

Policy and Management Functions Specific Activities

A. Health Domain National goal-setting, Role definition,


Laws and regulations

B. Hospital Domain

Strategic Management Mission definition, Strategic planning,


Operational guidelines, Asset
management

Financial Management Resource mobilization, Resource


planning and allocation, Accounting of
income and expenditures

Human Resource Management Hiring and firing of personnel, Creation


of posts, Determination of employee
rules, Contracts and salaries

Procurement Purchase of drugs and medical supplies,


Purchase of non-medical supplies,
Purchase of equipment

Administration All other day-to-day management


activities required in implementing
hospital mission and running hospital,
such as: time schedules, space
allocation, information management,
consumer relations, etc.

Table 5 below categorizes the relationship between hospital autonomy and


health sector reforms, and illustrates the mutually reinforcing role and nature
of the two.
The objectives and impact of increasing hospital autonomy should therefore
be evaluated not only within the context of other measures to improve
performance of public hospitals, but also within the larger context of health
sector reforms.

Organizational Models
The public hospital system can be reorganized to grant varying levels of
independence to various sub-units. This reorganization could, for instance,
entail the transfer of authority for planning, management, resource
mobilization, and resource allocation from the central government and its
agencies to:
• field units of central government ministries or agencies;
Data for Decision Making Project 27

Table 5
Autonomy as a Component of Health Reform

Reform Support Provided to the Support Provided by the


Reform by an Reform for Improving
Autonomous Hospital Performance of an
Autonomous Hospital
1. Resource Mobilization Improves performance of Supports and enables
fee collection and financial autonomy
management of funds
2. Introduction of National Makes budget tracking and Encourages responsible
Health Accounts & Budget control easier and data collection, management
Tracking government expenditure and analysis; improves
more transparent overall hospital management
3. Decentralization & Complements and supports Supports autonomy
Devolution decentralization and
devolution of decision
making
4. Market Competition Provides competition with Contributes to effective cost
private hospitals containment
5. Increasing Private Contribute to the creation of Creates a competitive
Sector Involvement a level playing field environment

• subordinate units or levels of government;


• semi-autonomous public authorities or corporations;

• area-wide, regional or functional authorities; or


• non-governmental private or voluntary organizations.
Reorganization of authority to grant greater autonomy can be done through the
processes of deconcentration and delegation (Rondinelli et al, 1984 and Mills,
1990). Deconcentration,
Deconcentration or the reorganization of authority in general, refers to
the redistribution of some amount of administrative authority to lower levels in
the hierarchy. Within guidelines established by the central agency, district
hospitals are permitted some element of discretion to implement projects and
proposals, and to adjust directives to local conditions. Deconcentration can lead
to two kinds of hospital administration structures: a vertical pattern of local
administration, and an integrated, or prefectural pattern. In the vertical pattern,
the local staff of each ministry are responsible to their own ministry. The public
health and revenue collection officials in a hospital, for instance, would report to
different superiors. Coordinating structures such as a district committee may be
sanctioned in order to ensure alliance between local and central ministries, and
28 Implementation Guidelines

may be permitted financial discretion to some extent. In the second form of


administration, the integrated form, a local representative of the central
government is responsible for the enactment of all government actions within
the hospital. Minimal requirements for this include a specifically defined
geographical sphere for which managers are responsible, at least one senior
staff member with strictly defined powers, a budget and staffing
establishment, and a method of communicating local needs to the central
authority.

Delegation,
Delegation or the reorganization of authority specific to functions, involves
the transfer of decision making and management authority for particular
functions to organizations which are not directly controlled by the central
government ministries. Functions may be delegated from the central
government to organizations such as public corporations and regional
planning and development authorities, and other parastatal organizations
which are not officially within the government structure.
The nature and extent of autonomy would depend on the degree to which
the government continues to retain control over the various functions of the
hospital, particularly important functions such as (a) health policy
formulation and the establishing of national priorities; (b) the allocation of
certain resources, in particular capital funds; (c) control over quality and
licensing; (d) regulation of health personnel, including selection and
recruitment, training, salaries and wages, discipline and discharge, etc.; and
(e) regulation of user-fees, allocation of surplus, and financial accounts and
bookkeeping.

Models of Autonomy
There are two popular models of autonomy that countries in our study
favored:
• Making individual hospitals autonomous and transferring decision
making to independent boards.
• Setting up an organization of hospitals as a quasi-governmental
organization and making this body autonomous.

The parastatal model has many advantages:


• the government has to deal with only one organization instead of many
different autonomous hospitals.
• it is simpler to monitor and regulate one organization instead of many
smaller units.
Data for Decision Making Project 29

• one autonomous organization requires only one good management team


as opposed to a much larger requirement of trained personnel for many
autonomous units.

There are many disadvantages also:

• individual hospitals continue to be non-autonomous, and thus the gains


from autonomy do not get fully realized.

• effective autonomy is always in danger of being diluted simply because it


is easy for the government to exercise control over the single
organization.

• an ineffective leadership of one big organization can have larger adverse


consequences and will affect all hospitals in comparison with ineffective
leadership in few small hospitals.

Internal Organization
The internal organization of a hospital may not need to undergo any change after
autonomy, though if a change in the control environment is required for any
other reason, this may well be the appropriate time for a reorganization. A
reorganization with a change in policies, personnel and responsibilities might
bring about new approaches to problem-solving and new attention to chronic
problems. At the same time, the reorganization may be simply necessary to
communicate the message that something is being done, which by itself may
trigger favorable responses. Moreover, organization design is largely an
executive function, and the introduction of a new board and new executive
leadership may also necessitate appropriate changes in the organization.

It is also useful to note that while legitimate authority is vested in clearly


defined centers in the organizational chart, informal organizations can be
more influential and important. Personal influence, expertise, control of
resources, and informal coalitions might portray lines of coordination and
control more accurately. In implementing change the informal sources of
authority and power should be recognized and to the extent possible,
utilized.
An organization brings together all available resources to perform defined
tasks and functions, and thus needs to be arranged in a way that permits
effective and efficient performance. A complex organization like a hospital can
be organized in a variety of ways. Two of the most popular organizational
models are discussed below.

• Functional Organization: Traditionally, small hospitals are organized


along functional lines, with labor divided into departments specialized by
functional areas like finance, buildings and maintenance, professional
30 Implementation Guidelines

services, nursing services, etc. the actual number of functional


departments depend on the size of the hospital (see figure 2).

• Divisional Organization: Large hospitals, particularly teaching hospitals,


are typically organized around traditional medical departments, such as
internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, etc. They can also be
organized around target groups, like women, elderly, cancer patients,
tuberculosis patients, etc. In this model decision making is decentralized
to the service level and each division has its own internal management
structure (see figure 3).

Figure 2
D iv isional Organization

Governing Board

CEO

Medical Director Administrator

Internal Pediatrics Gyneacology Surgery Nursing Finance Administration


Division Division Division

Subspeciality

Physicians Nursing Finance Administration

Performance Evaluation System


Many of the problems of the public hospital can be traced to inadequacies in
performance evaluation. A performance evaluation system is based on goals,
performance criteria and criterion values.3
The goals of a public hospital are difficult to specify due to the problems of
multiple objectives (including commercial and noncommercial objectives) and
plural principals (different organization units having different perceptions of what
the goals should be). If goals cannot be specified, then good managers cannot
be distinguished from bad ones.

A performance criterion is simply a quantification of an enterprise's objectives.


Multiple objectives can be handled by aggregation if they are individually

3/ This section draws heavily from Jones (1991) and Shirley (1991).
Data for Decision Making Project 31

Figure 3
Functional Organization

Governing Board

CEO

M edical M edical
Administration
Staff Director

Finance Engineering Nursing Services Other Professional


Services

M edical Records
Accounts Plant

Pharmacy
Purchasing Equipment

Food Services
M aintenance
House Keeping
& Laundry

quantifiable and if there is general agreement on the relative importance of each


objective. The problem arises when some of the objectives are noncommercial
and not quantifiable. The other issue is temporal: single period indicators ignore
future effects, and this is a major weakness. Performance indicators thus must
allow for dynamic effects.
Given the choice of any performance criterion, the still more difficult task
remains of selecting a particular criterion value, i.e., a yardstick against
which the performance criterion can be judged. Some sources of information
that can assist in setting criterion values are: 1. comparison with similar
firms elsewhere, 2. comparisons with the same firm’s performance in
previous years, 3. professional judgement by third parties, 4. professional
judgement at the ministry level, and 5. professional level at the hospital level.
The problem of quantifying noncommercial objectives can be serious,
especially in an organization where most of the output is noncommercial.
One straightforward solution is to eliminate the problem by simply denying
the validity of noncommercial objectives, for it is difficult to impose
commercial discipline on a firm that has recourse to noncommercial
objectives as an excuse for poor commercial performance. While ignoring
noncommercial objectives may be better than recognizing them and allowing
managers an excuse, a better solution is to quantify the cost of the
32 Implementation Guidelines

noncommercial objectives and enter them explicitly into the enterprise accounts.
Thus costs are measured rather than benefits. While this is not the best
solution, costs are usually easier to quantify and value.

A comprehensive performance evaluation criteria would thus have:

• a primary indicator, that would cover static operational efficiency plus


any noncommercial objectives that can be quantified;

• supplementary indicators, that cover dynamic effects and


noncommercial effects that can only be rated, but not monetized; and

• diagnostic indicators, that are used to explain the movements in the


primary indicator.

Performance evaluation of public hospitals is not a simple matter and a


workable system cannot be imposed arbitrarily or overnight. Rather, it must
be a product of an evolutionary process involving both enterprise managers
and government supervisors. Accordingly, a phased system is proposed.
Once an acceptable system is in place, however, an incentive system can be
operationalized in which the welfare of managers and workers is linked to
national welfare by a pecuniary or nonpecuniary bonus system based on
achievement of particular target values.

Consensus-Building and Goal Attainment


The public hospital is a complex organization delivering a wide array of
services, and functions as both a business entity and a government policy
instrument. This “hybrid” organization thus has a number of players at both
the government and the facility level, who necessarily have to interact in the
provision, delivery and finance of hospital services. The other key players
are the medical personnel, who traditionally have been rather independent of
hospital management. And finally, and most importantly, there are the
patients, who are the eventual consumers of hospital services. Each of
these stakeholders plays an important role in decision-making and operations,
and each in its own way contributes to the success of a health sector reform
initiative.

Within any government or hospital, there are several distinct power centers -
each of whom is likely to play a role in the evolution of hospital autonomy,
and the impact of this autonomy on efficiency, equity, revenue mobilization,
public accountability, and patient satisfaction. At the same time, there are
many potential points of conflict between the government and the hospital,
e.g., in defining the relationship between physicians and the autonomous
management, between the various departments of the autonomous hospital
and the various arms of government, etc.
Data for Decision Making Project 33

Our research suggests that an important starting point is a broad agreement


between the key stakeholders on the overall mission of autonomy, and on
the specific mandate of the public hospital. Just as important is a focus on
results and outcomes, rather than on rules and procedures. And, finally, it is
critically important to lay out clear and unambiguous guidelines on the roles,
responsibilities, and powers of each player, as well as the sanctions to be
imposed for failure to fulfill these responsibilities.

End-of-Section Checklist
√ Final list of target hospitals, prioritized according to some well defined
criteria.

√ Preliminary decision regarding autonomy taken.


√ A clear enunciation of the government’s objectives for implementing
autonomy, and the expected effect of autonomy on the health sector
from a financial and an administrative perspective.
√ An understanding of all the processes available to utilize support from
favoring individuals and organizations, and manage opposition from
those not in favor of autonomy.
√ Decision taken regarding the nature and extent of autonomy.
√ Decision taken regarding the level of facility to which autonomy is to
be given, such as primary, secondary, tertiary.
√ Decision taken for creation of a parastatal organization and giving that
organization autonomy, or giving autonomy to individual hospital.
√ Necessary changes made in the internal organization of the selected
hospital.
√ Performance evaluation criteria are established.

√ Appropriate steps taken toward consensus building.


34 Implementation Guidelines

Figure 1.6
Hospital Autonomy: Implementation Guidelines
Key Interventions

IDENTIFICATION OF HOSPITALS

PRESENT STRUCTURE PERFORMANCE


OF DECISION MAKING EVALUATION

DECISION MAKING

PROCESS

DESIGN

NATURE & AUTONOMY & ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS OF INTERNAL PERFORMANCE CONSENSUS


EXTENT of THE HEALTH SECTOR MODELS AUTONOMY ORGANIZATION EVALUATION BUILDING
AUTONOMY CRITERIA

KEY INTERVENTIONS

GOVERNANCE & FINANCE HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT HOSPITAL


ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEM

7. Key Areas

Autonomy may lead to a number of changes in the internal organization of the


hospital, both because an autonomous organization would need to have better
or different systems, and because autonomy has only now permitted the hospital
to implement desired improvements. The areas most likely to require change are:
• Governing Authority and Administration

• Finance
• Human Resources

• Procurement

• Hospital Information Systems


We will discuss each in turn.
Data for Decision Making Project 35

Governance and Administration


Perhaps one of the first areas that will be affected by the decision to grant
greater autonomy is governance and administration, for it is difficult to
implement any form of autonomy without affecting changes in the basic
patterns and systems of decision making. Of the many aspects of
governance and administration, we discuss issues relating to the
organizational mission and governing body in greater detail.

Mission
The mission of the hospital, like that of any organization, should identify and
describe the purpose of the hospital and the relationship of the hospital to
the society that it seeks to serve. The mission should be shaped by the
hospital's capabilities, future potential, its role assigned by the government
or by itself, and the demands and requirements of the community. Schulz
and Johnson (1990) suggest that a sound formulation of the mission should
be based on considerations of:
• what services is the hospital providing?
• what is the main purpose and objective for the hospital to be in this
activity?
• what tasks must be carried out to meet community needs?
A mission statement of a public hospital would typically include:

• The treatment of illness and the conservation of life.


• Ensuring courtesy and patient dignity.
• The education of physicians, nurses and other medical staff.
• The training of all medical staff in empathy and caring.

• The promotion of medical research.

• The promotion of preventive health care.

• The promotion of consumer awareness and knowledge of health


issues.

The Governing Board


The governing board of a public hospital is appointed by, and is accountable
to, the government, and must exercise authority to ensure that the hospital
36 Implementation Guidelines

carries out the mission of the government. The main functions of the board
are:

• Control and maintain organizational effectiveness

• Ensure that hospital objectives and policies meet community needs.

• Establish a long-range plan for the hospital.

• Approve the annual budget, and ensure strict control over income and
expenses.

• Monitor performance against plan and budget.

• Manage conflict and resolve major operational problems.

• Have ultimate legal responsibility to patients for quality of care.


• The procedures followed by the governing board should be in
compliance with the bylaws and the standing orders, and should
include:

- Convening meetings and setting agendas.


- Determining in advance the kinds of items that need to be
presented for discussion.
- Using appropriate strategies for routine, creative and
negotiated decisions.
Boards are commonly organized along functional lines, though in some cases
a divisional classification may be more useful. Functional boards, especially
in large hospitals, delegate some of their duties to committees established
for particular purposes. These committees usually have no executive
authority, but make recommendations to the board. There can be many such
committees, and typically they include:

• executive committee, which approves all major purchases, appoints


auditors, appoints medical staff, and transacts urgent business
between board meetings.
• finance committee, which reviews the budget and maintains control
over expenses.
• planning committee, which reviews long range and strategic plans.

• buildings committee, which supervises maintenance and repair to


hospital property.

• personnel committee, which rules on personnel matters.


Data for Decision Making Project 37

Boards organized along divisional lines are suitable for large multi-institutional
systems, where each component within the system is a distinct entity by itself.
A typical example is a structure like that of a holding company, where a large
number of hospitals are placed under one parastatal organization. The
divisional model applies to such cases, where the holding company has a board
and each of the constituent hospitals has its own board.

There is no obvious rule regarding the optimal size of the board. A very small
board (2-3 members) has the benefit of coming to quick decisions, but it lacks
the knowledge and expertise of a diverse group of individuals. On the other
hand, a very large board (20 and more) can become cumbersome and difficult to
manage. A 7-15 member team appears to be a good representation of the
community without overburdening members. A 9 or 15 member board has the
added advantage in that it provides for one third of its members to retire each
year, thus ensuring that at any given point in time there are some old members
providing continuity and some new members adding a fresh perspective to
decision-making. In any case, there is a distinct advantage in having an odd
number of members in the group to facilitate voting and avoiding stalemates.
There are no hard and fast rules regarding membership criteria, though it is
generally agreed that the members of the Board
• should represent diverse interests and professional background
• have sufficient time for attending board meetings
• have sufficient time to sit on committees

• have sufficient time to visit the hospital periodically


One possible constitution of the board would include the following members:
• representatives of the community

• representative of the Ministry of Health


• representative of the Ministry of Finance
• representative of the Ministry of Planning

• representative of the private sector (e.g., the CEO of a private


hospital)

• representative of a nongovernment organization

• representative of the medical school

• an expert in financial management, accounting, and evaluation


38 Implementation Guidelines

• an expert in health economics

• an expert in community medicine and public health

The board should be accountable to the community, patients, regulatory


agencies, sponsoring agencies, and those who provide funds. A system of
accountability would have:

• a clear statement of goals and objectives

• clear priorities

• a transparent system of resource allocation

• periodic assessment and evaluation of cost and benefits

• periodic performance evaluation based on established and approved


indicators
• wide public dissemination of findings evaluation
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO, or alternatively, the administrator) could
be the chairman of the Board, a voting member of the board, or an employee
of the owners and not a member of he board. While there are some merits in
all of these arrangements, it is probably in the best interest of the hospital if
the CEO is at least a voting member of the board. The CEO is required to
coordinate and communicate with the board committees and maintain a
trusting and enduring relationship with board members. The CEO is the
operational head of the hospital, and is responsible for developing strategic
plans, creating a work-culture in the organization, negotiating and resolving
conflicts, managing day-to-day administration, communicating with
government authorities and financial agencies, and generally carrying out the
mission of the organization. A CEO who is also a member of the board will
probably have sufficient access to decision-making and thus will carry out
these tasks more effectively as compared to a CEO who is not a board
member.

Finance
Another area where autonomy is likely to bring about significant changes is
the financial management of the hospital. Autonomy is likely to lead to a
change in government financial allocations from line budgetary allocations to
block grants. In addition, there may be increasing opportunities for the
hospital to raise their own resources, through user charges, institutional
finance, donations, etc. At the same time, changes in the procurement and
personnel processes may put additional demands on the financial managers
Data for Decision Making Project 39

in the hospital. And finally, reporting and auditing requirements may also be
challenging tasks in an autonomous hospital. Thus, changes in financial
management may become necessary because of:

• change in the budgetary process of allocation

• nongovernment sources of revenue

• changes in procurement, maintenance and inventory control policies

• changes in personnel policies

• changes in audit and reporting requirements

Non-autonomous public hospitals typically have very small finance


departments, since the hospital itself manages very little of its finances. The
needs of autonomy will thus require the management to build up this
department almost from scratch, and this can be a very challenging task. The
areas that will need particular attention are accounting, auditing, budgeting,
financial planning and financial reporting.
reporting

Human Resources Management


Another significant addition that autonomy is likely to bring to the hospital’s
functions is human resources management,
management which is a highly specialized
function in the modern hospital. The principal objective of human resources
management is to create an environment and mechanisms that enable the
hospital management to integrate organizational and employee needs. In a
large and complex organization like a hospital this tends to be a very
significant and specialized function.
The human resources department will be required to perform many activities,
of which probably the most basic and important will be the transition of
erstwhile state employees to the newly created autonomous hospital. The
autonomous hospital may thus be required to transfer all personnel records
from the controlling offices in the government to the hospital, which by itself
will be a huge task. Besides the space requirements that this will entail, the
hospital will need qualified and trained staff to manage these records. Fixing
compensation for hospital employees may also be within the powers of the
autonomous organization.

Another significant new activity will be procurement of employees. The


responsibility of human resource management will range from preparing and
evaluating job descriptions to hiring of employees.
employees The human resources
department should thus be proficient in developing labor market information,
developing and validating selection instruments, screening potential
candidates, and hiring the required number of suitable employees.
40 Implementation Guidelines

The human resource department should also introduce procedures for


evaluation of employee performance,
performance which will entail the preparation of
evaluation instruments, introducing a system of recognition and rewards,
transfers, salary increases, dismissals and resignations.

Training and development is an important activity that the human resource


department coordinates. This requires interaction with departmental heads to
assess their requirements and future needs regarding employee skills.

Public hospitals are likely to be unionized, and the transition to autonomy


may leave some members of the staff dissatisfied enough to be potentially
troublesome for the hospital. Skills in negotiation and labor relations are thus
likely to be of critical importance.

Procurement
Another activity that may be transferred to the hospital is procurement of
medical and nonmedical supplies, including drugs. Non-autonomous public
hospitals seldom purchase their own requirements of consumables, and thus
usually do not have separate procurement departments or procedures. An
autonomous hospital may thus be required to create a new procurement
department, whose primary objectives would be to purchase or otherwise
acquire equipment and materials of quantity and quality consistent with
departmental requirements and good patient care. Centralized purchasing
within the hospital has the advantages of bulk quantity purchasing,
standardization of items, controlled accounting procedures, controlled
inventory management procedures, controlled accounting and audit
procedures, and strong supervision. Decentralized purchasing within the
departments in the hospital has the advantage that specialized departments
can procure supplies in accordance to their specialized needs.

Hospital Information Systems


A commonly used term to describe the total data collection and analysis in
an organization is management information systems.
systems Gillette et al (1970)
suggest that a complex organization like a hospital is composed of at least
eight subsystems (figure 4):

• Patient diagnosis and treatment system, which includes information


derived from various hospital departments such as pathology,
diagnostic radiology, pharmacy, rehabilitation, etc.

• Patient record system, which includes medical records, admissions,


discharges, insurance details, etc.
Data for Decision Making Project 41

Figure 4
Hospital Information System

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM


SYSTEM SOURCE APPLICATIONS OUTPUT

Cost For:
Patient Diagnosis •Procedure
Financial
& Treatment •Patient Days
Data •Outpatients
System
Strategic
Planning
Patient Record
System
Standard
Product Finance Utilization
Profiles Analysis By:
Patient Boards •Department
Scheduling & •Physician,
Order System etc.
Control
Standard
Service Service
Patient Profiles
Accounting Concurrent
System Technology Patient
Service
Personnel Review
Expenditure &
Patient
General
Data Internal
Accounting
Control
System

Department
Personnel Service &
System Clinical Statistics
Data

Support Services
System

Planning Performance
Data Reporting
Management
Control System

• Patient scheduling and order system, which includes patient care and
support services, such as food, housekeeping, etc.

• Patient accounting system, which includes all financial accounting


related to patients, credit and collections, subsidies, etc.
42 Implementation Guidelines

• Expenditure and general accounting system, which includes budgeting,


payroll, materials, plant systems, etc.

• Personnel system, which includes information on all employees and


positions in the facility.

• Support services system, which includes information on departments


such as engineering, vehicles, plant management, etc.

• Management control system, which includes organizational


information, inter-group dynamics, internal controls, communication,
etc.

Hospital information systems are expected to fulfill the following important


goals:
• provide key users with access to timely and comprehensive
information about health services delivery, costs and performance;
• provide necessary information for strategic planning;

• provide necessary information to facilitate monitoring and reporting;


• provide concurrent indicators of occupancy, length of stay, repairs,
maintenance, etc.

The success of hospital information systems depends on a variety of factors,


not the least important of which is how easy it is to use the system. Hospital
information systems are in a constant stage of evolution, and interested
users are encouraged to seek out the latest developments in this regard.

End-of-Section Checklist
√ Final list of target hospitals, prioritized according some well defined
criteria.

√ Preliminary decision regarding autonomy taken.


√ A clear enunciation of the government’s objectives for implementing
autonomy, and the expected effect of autonomy on the health sector
from a financial and an administrative perspective.

√ An understanding of all the processes available to utilize support from


favoring individuals and organizations, and manage opposition from
those not in favor of autonomy.

√ Decision taken regarding the nature and extent of autonomy, level of


facility, organizational model, and performance evaluation criteria.
Data for Decision Making Project 43

√ Mission statement for the hospital or the organization is prepared.

√ The governing board is appointed, and its duties and responsibilities


clearly spelt out.

√ A new finance department is established, or the existing one


strengthened, to perform the functions of accounting, auditing,
budgeting, financial management, etc.

√ A new human resources department is established, or the existing one


strengthened, to perform the new functions of hiring, evaluation,
personnel records, etc.

√ A new procurement department is established, or the existing one


strengthened to perform the new medical and nonmedical supplies
procurement functions.
√ A new hospital information system is established, or the existing one
strengthened, to perform the functions of strategic planning,
monitoring and reporting.
44 Implementation Guidelines

8. End Note

These guidelines discuss some broad issues of implementation of hospital


autonomy. Needless to say, there will be many differences between country
situations, and between hospitals within a country. Guidelines such as these
cannot hope to identify in advance all the various issues, and that is not the
intention. The objective is to highlight some of the key issues and to provide
a relevant framework that can be easily adapted and built upon to take into
account country and facility specific situations. Within this caveat, we hope
that these guidelines will be useful for policy makers and hospital
administrators considering hospital autonomy as a means to improving
performance.
Data for Decision Making Project 45

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