Friday, October 16, 2009

Healthcare-Associated Infections

I received this email today. The content may interest you. Please read.


Hi IFEOLU

One thing everyone can agree on, no matter where they come down on the current health care debates, is that no one should get sick as a result of visiting the doctor.

Hospitals are rightfully expected to get you better but that's not always the case. Sometimes people are picking up infections, from pneumonia to antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), while under treatment for other health problems, or even while just in the hospital having a baby. That's a situation that could, and should, be completely avoidable.

Kimberly-Clark Health Care is on the forefront of protecting patients from Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) and has put together a site dedicated to that prevention called HAI Watch: Not on My Watch. The site has information for both healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers.

I would like to ask for your help getting the word out on AdvocateHealth!. Here's a microsite which explains everything. Please use any of the images, logos, videos, etc, on your site:

http://www.haiwatchnews.com/

Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to post, I'd really appreciated it if you'd send me the link.

Thank you,

Barbara
--
Barbara Dunn
barbara@haiwatchnews.com
www.haiwatch.com

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Public-private partnerships for healthcare delivery in the African context: neologisms, sacrosanctity and the re-birth of Garki hospital.

The following abstract has been accepted for presentation at the 2nd WONCA African regional conference in South Africa. The abstract is listed on the conference website. The conference comes up at the end of this month. Please read.

Oral presentation.
FALEGAN Ifeolu Joseph. Consultant Family Physician, Garki Hospital, Tafawa Balewa Way, Area 8, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. www.advocatehealth.blogspot.com. faleganji@yahoo.com.
The quest for efficiency and sustainability is beginning to impact healthcare delivery globally. There is a gradual departure from the norm. Public-private partnerships for healthcare delivery are being erroneously regarded as new entrants into the field of health systems reform. This axiom is being promoted in the parlance of world bodies in an attempt to improve health outcomes. However, healthcare delivery in every country involves some form of public-private partnership. In many countries where care is devolved through the public system, there is significant input from the private sector and vice-versa. This fact holds true for many African countries.
The public health system is decadent in a number of failed African states. The consequence is an unregulated private-driven healthcare system with a propensity for high out-of-pocket expenses in contradiction to the quality of care received. In Nigeria, for instance, close to 70% of healthcare is delivered by the private sector.
Garki hospital, Abuja, is the first acclaimed public-private partnership for health in Nigeria. The hospital was revived two years ago in a franchise that merged private finance initiative with government’s quest for quality healthcare delivery and has since then been dispensing care to patients from within and outside the Federal Capital Territory.
This presentation examines the different models of public-private partnerships in healthcare delivery drawing on examples from Spain, Australia, England, India and the Garki experiment. The presentation considers the advantages and disadvantages of public-private partnerships, the dichotomy between public and private initiatives and the key issues influencing performance such as competitiveness, cost, quality and flexibility. The implications of these especially as they relate to primary care and the practice of Family Medicine in resource-constrained settings are discussed.