Organisational Capacity Building In Health Systems

Capacity building - which focuses on understanding the obstacles that prevent organisations from realising their goals, while promoting those features that help them to achieve measurable and sustainable results - is vital to improve the delivery of health care in both developed and developing countries. Organisations are important structural building blocks of health systems because they provide platforms for delivery of curative and preventive health services, and facilitate health workforce financing and functions. Organisational capacity building involves more than training and equipment and this book discusses management capacity to restructure systems, structures and roles strategically to optimise organisational performance in healthcare. Examining the topic in a practical and comprehensive way, Organisational Capacity Building in Health Systems is divided into five parts, looking at: What health organisations are and do Management and leadership in health organisations How to build capacity in health systems Building capacity in a range of health system contexts Dealing with challenges in building capacity and evaluating work Looking at how to effectively design, implement and evaluate organisational capacity building initiatives, this book is ideal for public health, health promotion and health management researchers, students and practitioners.

Over the past decade, there have been many international calls to strengthen and support/sustain research capacity in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This capacity is considered an essential foundation for cost-effective healthcare systems. While there have been long-standing investments by many countries and research funding organisations in the training of individuals for this purpose, in many LMICs research capacity remains fragmented, uneven and fragile. There is growing recognition that a more systems-oriented approach to research capacity-building is required. Nonetheless, there are considerable gaps in the evidence for approaches to capacity-building that are effective and sustainable. This book addresses these gaps, capturing what was learned from teams working on The Global Health Research Initiative. This book brings together the experiences of research capacity-building teams co-led by Canadians and LMIC researchers in several regions of the world, including China, Chile, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

Among the issues confronting America is long-term care for frail, older persons and others with chronic conditions and functional limitations that limit their ability to care for themselves. Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care takes a comprehensive look at the quality of care and quality of life in long-term care, including nursing homes, home health agencies, residential care facilities, family members and a variety of others. This book describes the current state of long-term care, identifying problem areas and offering recommendations for federal and state policymakers. Who uses long-term care? How have the characteristics of this population changed over time? What paths do people follow in long term care? The committee provides the latest information on these and other key questions. This book explores strengths and limitations of available data and research literature especially for settings other than nursing homes, on methods to measure, oversee, and improve the quality of long-term care. The committee makes recommendations on setting and enforcing standards of care, strengthening the caregiving workforce, reimbursement issues, and expanding the knowledge base to guide organizational and individual caregivers in improving the quality of care.

The perspective that informs this important book is that every evaluation of a capacity development effort should itself contribute to the capacity development effort and ultimately to the organization’s performance. This is a revolutionary idea in evaluation. With the idea have come the questions: Can it be done? And, if it is done, what will be the consequences? This book elucidates and deepens the idea, shows it can be done, and examines the consequences, both intended and unintended, of engaging in capacity development evaluation

Institutional Assessment: A framework for strengthening organizational capacity for IDRCs research partners

This book considers specific and practical ways in which NGO's can contribute to enabling people to build on the capacities they already possess. It reviews the types of social organisation with which NGO's might consider working and the provision of training in a variety of relevant skills and activities.