Abstract

GUIDLINE FOR HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT

*Sandesh Balasaheb Nagargoje (B.Pharm), Sushma T. Nakhate (M.Pharm), Mr. L. D. Hingane (Phd Scholar)

Abstract

Tanzanian hospitals suffer from underfunding and poor management. In particular, planning and strategic thinking need improvement. Cultural values such as subordination, risk aversion, and high time preference, together with a long history of socialist government, result in lack of responsibility, accountability, and planning. This has been addressed by the health sector reform with its focus on decentralization, strengthened by the introduction of basket funding facilitated by the Comprehensive Council Health Plans. As a consequence of this the next logical step is to improve the authority of regional and district hospitals in the use of their resources by introducing hospital development plans. These strategic plans were introduced as tools of strategic planning in 2001 by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau in close collaboration with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, binding the release of rehabilitation funds to presentation of a strategic hospital plan. This study examines the rationale and content of hospital development plans. Initial experiences are discussed .The quality of presented plans has steadily improved, but there is a tendency for hospitals with a close connection to development partners to present well prepared reports while other hospitals have severe problems fulfilling the requirements. For many hospitals it is in fact the first time that they have had to define their functions and future role, thus breaking ground for strategic thinking. Hospitals which utilize most of the health budget play a very important role in the country’s health system. Hospital Administration can not be done on intuition. A hospital administrator must be well aware of the scientifi c methods to run and evaluate the hospital functions and services in an objective fashion. All the doctors should be having a good understanding of hospital organization and management for better care of their patients. Moreover they should also have enough knowledge for management of human, material and fi nancial resources in a cost effective way with optimum time approach. Hospitals are among the most complex organizations in modern society. The modern hospital itself is a universe, with a variety of objectives, and a scalar division of labor to achieve those objectives.

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