| Contracting | Information Dissemination | Regulation Definition Information dissemination, in the health services context, is a sectoral policy to influence patients' care-seeking and providers' service delivery behavior. Status of Information Dissemination Through disseminating information, governments can encourage the public to seek qualified providers and demand appropriate health services. For example, it can educate malaria patients about what treatment to obtain, how much to obtain, and where to obtain it. As a result, this strategic tool lowers the demand for inappropriate care and creates an incentive for providers to deliver adequate services. Common methods of circulating information to the public include the use of radios, pamphlets, television, and education campaigns. In addition, the use of "report cards" and "accreditation," are information mechanisms that affect the characteristics of provider services. "Report cards," which uses citizen feedback to assess the performance of public providers, can be implemented to inform politicians about the changes that are needed in local health services. In Bangalore, this mechanism led to improvements in the services offered by two public hospitals. In contrast, accreditation, which evaluates and recognizes the quality of private provider services, informs the public about those providers that succeed or do not succeed in meeting specific standards. Consequently, this changes patient demand for private providers services, and creates an incentive for these providers to improve their services and meet the standards. Issues in Information Dissemination In developing countries, disseminating information to the public is often difficult because many live in areas that are hard to reach and because communication channels are often insufficient. In addition, even if the information reaches the public, it is difficult to ensure that they will listen to it, understand it, and take the appropriate action. Listening- Patients may prefer to listen to local providers or traditional healers than to knowledge from outside their community. Understanding- Many patients in developing countries are illiterate and cannot comprehend educational pamphlets without culturally appropriate diagrams. Also, patients may receive conflicting information from different sources, leading to confusion about the appropriate action. Action-- Patients may experience logistical, political, or economic constraints that limit them from acting upon what they learned from the informational material. For example, in many developing countries, patients may not be able to lower their demand for inappropriate providers if their options for providers are limited to a single source. Such a situation limits the incentives that stimulate providers to improve the quality of their services. Top Trends in Information Dissemination In order to better ensure that information dissemination leads to appropriate patient care-seeking behavior and provider service delivery behavior, developing countries and international organizations have identified several methods. Investing in communication infrastructure and creating culturally appropriate messages are some of the methods. Infrastructure-- Many countries are creating and improving channels of communication so that patients can gain more knowledge about what services are appropriate and what are not. For example, many governments encourage the development of independent organizations that grant accreditation to private providers and report the results to the public. Culturally Appropriate-- In Africa, the WHO and several governments have realized the need to simplify the language in their informational material so that the average individual can understand it and communicate the messages to those around them. In addition, because of the high illiteracy rates in developing countries, there is a trend for many informational messages to include diagrams that are appropriate for the target culture. Top Key References World Bank To be added in the near future... Top External - Newbrander, W. (1999). Accreditation of Providers for the National Health Insurance Fund of Tanzania. Boston, MA, Management Sciences for Health.
 Reviews accreditation as a method to improve quality of health service in Tanzania. Discusses the requirements and challenges towards a successful implementation of accreditation. Also includes an annex on operational methods for ensuring quality and an inspector's accreditation guide.
Top Resource People To be added in the near future... Top Useful Websites Additional References To be added in the near future... |
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