health management methods and techniques

1. Health management
Dr. Aruna, MD
Assistant professor

2. Management
• Getting things done
• The purposeful and effective use of resources-
manpower, materials and finances for fulfilling
pre-determined objective

3. Four basic activities:
1. Planning: determining what is to be done
2. Organising: setting up the framework or
apparatus and making it possible for groups to
do the work
3. Communicating: motivating people to do the
work
4. Monitoring or controlling: checking to make
sure that work is progressing satisfactorily

4. Management techniques
• Familiar in business, industry, defence and
other fields
• Management in Health is very essential to
maintain quality and equity
• There are many management techniques
developed by the experts in management
science to help managers to achieve goals
easily and efficiently

5. Management techniques:
1. Methods based on behavioural sciences
2. Quantitative methods

6. Organisational design:
 Organisation must be suited to current
situation and the needs to be suited
 Organisation of health services designed in a
way to meet the health needs and demands
of people
 Design should be reviewed frequently :
changing concepts, changing problems and
changing technology

7. Personnel management :
• Proper methods of selection, training and
motivation
• Division of responsibility
• Distribution of role
• Incentive for better work
• Opportunities for promotion and professional
advancement
• Effective design of health teams

8. Communication
• Better communication ~ effective functioning
• Communication roadblocks: doctor- patients;
doctor- nurse; senior- junior; directorate-
health ministry
• Responsible for delays in regular reporting and
notification; delays in remedial measure
• Major weakness in health management
• Establish good horizontal & vertical
communication channels

9. Information systems:
• Needed for day to day health management
• Formal & informal
• Collection, classification, transmission, storage
retrieval, transformation & display of information
• A good information system provides data for
monitoring & evaluation of health programmes
• Feed back to health administrators & planners at
all levels

10. Management by objectives:
• Objectives are set forth for different units
• Each unit will prepare separate plans
• Short term basis

11. Quantitative methods
Cost benefit analysis
• Widest application in health field
• Economic benefits of any programme is
compared with the cost
• Benefits are expressed in monetary terms
• Select the best of alternate
• Generally expressed in terms of deaths
prevented, illness avoided

12. Cost effective analysis:
• More promising tool
• Expressed in terms of results achieved
• Number of lives saved; no. Of days free from
disease
• May not be possible in many situations

13. Cost- accounting:
• Basic data on cost structure of any programme
• Financial records are kept in such a manner
permitting costs to be associated with the
purpose for which it is incurred
• Purpose- cost control, planning & allocation,
pricing of cost reimbursement

14. Input- output analysis:
• Economic technique
• Input- health services
• Output- outcome; cases treated, lives saved
• Input- output table- how much input is
required for desired output

15. Model
• Basic concept of management science
• Aid to understand how the factors in a
situation affect one another
• Decision process includes the use of model

16. Systems analysis
• Helps the decision maker to choose an
appropriate course of action by investigating
his problem
• Evaluation in terms of cost effectiveness, re
examination of objectives
• System can be a hospital supply system,
information system health service system