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Service delivery
Just as the principal objective of a health system is to improve people's health, the chief function the system needs to perform is to deliver health services. Service provision refers to the way inputs (such as money, staff, equipment and drugs) are combined to allow the delivery of a series of health interventions. Thus, improving and scaling up service delivery depends on having key resources and on how those resources are organized and managed. Lack of managerial capacity at all levels of the health system is being cited increasingly as a binding constraint to scaling up services and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
WHO/Stephenie Hollyman
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Health services include personal health services - preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic or rehabilitative - and non-personal services such as mass health education, legislation and the provision of basic sanitation facilities. In the case of clinical interventions, the patient is at the centre of service delivery. In the case of non-individual public health services, it is the affected population. Adverse events occur in all settings where health care is provided. They can take place at every point in the process of care-giving and may be the result of problems in practice, products, procedures or systems. Patient safety is a global imperative.
The non-state sector—which includes private for-profit and non-profit health care providers--is playing an increasingly significant role in health service provision in both urban and rural settings and for both rich and poor. It is in the interest of governments and others working to achieve global health goals to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the non-state health sector. The extent to which people who need care are actually getting it is what matters most. Hence coverage of health services--which is about increased access, better quality and appropriate utilization--is a good measure for the overall performance of service provision.
Service delivery Helpful resources
Organization and management of health services
Management for health service delivery (MAKER)
AFRO
Division of Health Systems and Services Development (DSD) - WHO-AFRO
AMRO/PAHO
Health care models
Health care quality assurance
Health services management
Hospitals
Local health systems
School health services
Civil society
EURO
Health care delivery
Hospital management
Integrated care
Integrated health services
Quality of health systems
EMRO
Management effectiveness initiatives
WPRO
Health systems
Primary health care
Patient safety
Patient safety main site
AFRO - Blood safety
PAHO - Drug safety
PAHO - Immunization safety
SEARO - Blood safety
EURO - Blood safety
WPRO - Blood safety
WPRO - Injection safety
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