Poland - Improving the Financial Sustainability of the Hospital Sector : Towards a Systemic Approach
Over the past twenty years, the Polish health system has undergone several deep systemic changes. Poland spends more of its healthcare budget on inpatient hospital care than comparable countries, signaling an area of inefficiency that requires refo...
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/04/19550113/poland-improving-financial-sustainability-hospital-sector-poland-towards-systemic-approach-policy-note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19033 |
| Summary: | Over the past twenty years, the Polish
health system has undergone several deep systemic changes.
Poland spends more of its healthcare budget on inpatient
hospital care than comparable countries, signaling an area
of inefficiency that requires reform ahead of demographic
trends. Ownership of public hospital facilities is
fragmented between different levels of government, leading
to multiple stakeholders and a lack of accountability.
Poland has made significant progress in rationalizing its
hospital system and reducing the number of beds, but the
reform agenda remains unfinished as evidenced by the
continuing debt issue. This note outlines a path to
improving the financial sustainability of the hospital
sector in Poland. The anatomy of the debt problem is
examined and major obstacles to financial health are
systematically reviewed. The root causes of barriers are
analyzed from a managerial as well as a health system
perspective, including the role of regulatory and financing
constraints. In making the case for change, the report also
discusses how secular trends, for instance in population
health and service delivery, need to be taken into account
as plans to reshape the hospital system are being
formulated. Preliminary recommendations are made
distinguishing: (i) system-level changes which will require
national-level policy interventions, and (ii) options for
Voivodships and facility managers to work better within the
existing system and enhance the chances of selecting no
regret move investments. |
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