Department of Health System Management

Modern day health care delivery systems have grown in complexity. Today’s consumers and care providers share a common burden regarding critical decisions about what care shall be provided at what level and in what form. In response to this challenge, a number of professions, including Health System Management, have developed a high level of sophistication to meet the accounting and management requirements.

The Health System Management programme is designed to train health managers. These young professionals assume middle management positions at different levels, depending on the size of the organisation. They are expected to accomplish the following during the course of their study at the Department of Health System Management, School of Business and Management Sciences, UOG:

• Planning: Setting goals and converting them into specific objectives;

• Organising: Lining up and ensuring the availability of the needed resources;

• Staffing: Working out, in consultation with other concerned professionals, the number and type of employees needed to accomplish the objectives;

• Activating: Directing and ensuring that every employee knows what to do;

• Controlling: Measuring the results and comparing them with what is expected and, when needed, taking the corrective action;

• Coordinating: Cooperation with other departments;

• Budgeting: Working out details of the financial resources needed and obtaining the budget’s approval.

Occupational Description

The graduates of BS (Hons) in Health System Management programme can be employed in a variety of settings. They can assume a variety of job titles depending on their work experience and place of work. Common job titles held by professionals who are trained in Health System Management are administrative director, assistant to chief executive, management specialist, section head, special assistant, etc.

Mission and Objectives

The mission of the Health System Management programme is to educate and train skillful, knowledgeable and committed health managers who have breadth of knowledge and expertise in the basic management areas, who shall adhere to professional ethics, and who can contribute successfully as managers and teachers in the health care team. The programme also aims at contributing to the development of health facilities in Pakistan by providing consultancy and other services. The key objectives, therefore, are to:

1.      Develop, monitor, evaluate, review and maintain an undergraduate curriculum that provides:

§  An essential core of knowledge and skills;

§  Concepts, tools and techniques of management and administration;

§  Basic concepts and techniques of problem-solving, data evaluation and assessment;

§  Social, emotional and environmental aspects of disease;

§  Computer application to health information;

§  Relevant correlations between management, finance and IT application to health care, through interdisciplinary courses and through early and continuous exposure to health care delivery facilities;

§  A thorough grounding in professional ethics in Health System Management.

2.    Foster the requisite professional attitudes and values in the students, who shall adhere to professional ethics and demonstrate concern, responsibility and the ability to interact appropriately with other care-providers, administrators, patients and their families.

3.    Provide the students with the necessary support and guidance in terms of counselling, and feedback on performance in a health care facility.

4.    Use alternative learning modes, including:

§  Computer-assisted learning;

§  Problem-based learning;

§  Self-instructional units;

§  Simulated decision system;

§  Student presentations;

§  Audio-video controlled decision making and problem analysis sessions.

5.    Have the following well functioning laboratories:

§  A computer laboratory to represent an operational, computerised management system;

§  An audio-visual laboratory for managerial role playing.

6.    Develop and provide postgraduate programmes, short courses, lectures, workshops and seminars to Ministry of Health officials, so that they can better meet the changing health care needs of Pakistan.

7.    Recruit well qualified and experienced teaching and support staff, who will not only act as role models for the students and keep themselves abreast with scientific advances and emerging trends in the field but also apply the state-of-the-art techniques in all endeavours: community service, curriculum development and assessment, field placement, research, teaching, etc.

8.    Provide consultancy services to hospitals and clinics in the public sector health care delivery system, as well as in the private sector.

Curriculum

The professional curriculum in a Health System Management programme deals with and caters to the following areas:

• Organisation and Management: Financial management, functions and principles of organisation, human resource management and development, inter-personnel skills; organisational behaviour, etc.

• Health Care Systems: Legal and financial aspects of health care and other ethical issues.

• Information Technology: Data communication, introduction to database concepts, micro computer applications, operating systems, systems’ development. etc.

• Quantitative Methods and Research: Epidemiology, health care statistics, research methods as they pertain to health care information requirements.

• Health Care Information Systems: Classification and nomenclatures, computerised health care information system, health data content and structure, reimbursement systems, system analysis and design, etc.

Competencies in Health Management

The Health System Management programme ensures that upon graduation the students have the following competencies:

• Conceptual competence: Understanding the theoretical foundations of the profession.

• Technical competence: Ability to perform skills required for the profession.

• Integrative competence: Ability to meld theory and skills in the practice setting.

• Career marketability: Becoming marketable as a result of acquired education and training.