PMID: 16512059Mar 4, 2006Paper

The role of purchasing in hospital performance

World Hospitals and Health Services : the Official Journal of the International Hospital Federation
A S Preker, John C Langenbrunner

Abstract

In this article the authors review the core messages on getting value for public money spent on healthcare presented in a recent World Bank publication, Spending Wisely: Buying Health Services for the Poor, edited by the same authors. The authors discuss how interest of the poor would often be better served through a fundamental shift in the way public money is spent on the health services--notably by moving away from passive budgeting within the public sector towards strategic purchasing or contracting of services from non-governmental providers. The shift from hiring staff in the public sector and producing services "in house" to strategic purchasing of non governmental providers--outsourcing--has been at the centre of a lively debate on collective financing of healthcare during recent years. Its underlying premise is that it is necessary to separate the functions of financing from the production services to improve performance and accountability. Promoting good health and confronting disease challenges of course requires action across a broad range of activities in the health system. This includes improvements in the policymaking and stewardship role of governments, better access to human resources, drugs, medical equipment ...Continue Reading

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