Health Sciences

China Health Program

Short course packages

Program packages

Package one: Policy analysis and development – system challenges

The purpose of this package is to contribute to the development of health policy leadership capability in government bodies which have responsibilities relating to health development at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels.

Topics will include:

• the skills of policy practice
• policy communities and policy participation
• transition economies and theories of transition
• policy gridlock and related issues
• learning from other countries
• capacity building for better policy outcomes
• health system models and languages

Package two: Government role in providing health services – governance, regulation, and purchasing

The objectives of this package are to help governmental officials at all levels and senior health service managers to understand the broad structures of health care financing, governance and regulation; to be familiar with salient episodes in health sector reform in Australia including various forms of purchasing, privatisation, contracting out and integration of public and private resources in health care programs; to be familiar with current policy debates concerning the roles and relationships of public and private sectors of health care including various forms of purchasing and outsourcing; and to have acquired new perspectives on problems, policy choices and implementation challenges facing health reform in China.

Topics will include:

• Introduction to the Australian health system;
• Australian health system financial arrangements;
• Health sector reform in Australia: strategies and outcomes;
• PBS as regulated subsidised purchasing;
• DRGs and Casemix;
• Privatisation and outsourcing – international experience;
• Purchase of clinical services;
• Strategic questions in the application of DRGs and casemix purchasing;
• Use of DRGs in private health insurance
  
• Units of purchasing. Purchasing CHS, disability services, A&DS, etc
  
• Outsourcing, casemix purchasing, public private partnership in capital development, health insurance
  
• Strategic procurement in the health sector and related issues

Package three: Health services management – performance and quality management

This package addresses the challenge of improving the quality of health care and the performance of health care organisations.

It aims to enhance trainees’ knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• practical knowledge of current approaches to quality and evidence regarding their effectiveness;
  
• major theoretical developments and their contribution to current approaches and methods;
  
• problems of conceptualising and measuring performance and quality;
  
• the principles of performance management; and the question of the cost/quality trade-off
  
• the history and context which shape efforts to improve quality and performance, and the forces which underly continuing change in the operating environment.

Topics will include:

• Quality and safety as performance
  
• History of Quality
  
• Learning from business
  
• Safety in hospitals
  
• Risk management
  
• Clinical risk management
  
• Measuring the quality of surgical care
  
• Performance measurement (for management)
  
• Patient feedback
  
• Hospital accreditation
  
• The Bristol scandal and Clinical governance
  
• The quality use of medicines
  
• Managing complaints

Package four: Health services management – organisational and human resource management

This package provides a comparison between current management practice in western organisations (commercial and health) and Chinese health organisations, and in particular addresses the issues of organisation structural design and human resources management.

Topics will include:

• National cultural differences
  
• Changes impacting on health organisations
  
• The role of the manager in the western context
  
• Managers in Chinese hospitals
  
• Human resource management and the health sector
  
• Issues in designing organisations
  
• Western examples of organisational design in health care
  
• Team dynamics: coordination and communication
  
• Western approaches to leadership
  
• Western approaches to motivation
  
• Human resources planning
  
• Recruitment and selection

Package five: Health services management – financial management

This package aims to help trainees improve their understanding and skills in managing financial resources.

On completion of this training, students will:

• understand basic principles and conventions of accounting
  
• be able to analyse and interpret financial statements
  
• understand basic principles of finance
  
• be familiar with the methods and limitations of cost analysis, cost control and business planning
  
• be able to prepare and analyse budgets for their organisations/departments
  
• be able to use methods of evaluating business opportunities and investment decisions
  
• understand methods of funding health service organisations in Australia, including the principles of casemix funding (‘DRGs’); and be able to assess their relevance for the Chinese health system.

Topics will include:

• Introduction to Finance Principles
  
• Introduction to Accounting
  
• Financial Statements
  
• Working Capital Management
  
• Financing the Organisation
  
• Investment
  
• Cost Analysis and Cost Control
  
• Cost Accounting Practice in Australian Hospitals
  
• Cost-Volume Profit Analysis
  
• Break-even Analysis
  
• Budget Basics
  
• Contracting Out and Tendering
  
• Business Planning
  
• Remuneration, Incentives and Bonuses
  
• Public Health Care System financing
  
• The Private System financing
  
• Output Funding
  
• Case Study: Impact of Casemix

Package six: Health information management – strategic planning and management

This aim of this package is to develop policy and strategic planning skills amongst policy makers and senior health managers and officials.

Topics will include:

• Introduction to and historic evolvement of health information system;
  
• Future trend of health information system;
  
• Infrastructure issues of health information system;
  
• Policy issues of developing health information system;
  
• Approaches in developing health information system;
  
• Strategic management of health information system.

Package seven: Health information management – system analysis and development

The objective of this package is to develop informatics and information management skills amongst managers and officials who already have clinical health knowledge.

Topics will include:

• Manager’s Role in Health Information System.
  
• Health Data for decision support: Infrastructure requirements, information strategy, standards, information interchange processes. The processes of health data representation and collection.
  
• Clinical Health Data and Concept Representation: Health Data Systems and aggregate collections. Classification of health concepts. Health concept representation theory. Issues with health data for decision support, service based data, patient based data concepts.
  
• Clinical indicators and population health outcome indicators: The principles of clinical indicators. Casemix/DRG concepts of representing health services. Audit processes for service and clinical data. Definition of health outcomes and the use of health information to monitor health outcomes. Integration of data for population and health outcome review.
  
• IT Systems in Health: Description of the health information system, the different functional elements of the system and how these elements work together to provide a complete information system.
  
• Functional Model definition for health systems, including Use Case development and the concept of functional re-usability.
  
• Complex Health Systems (including interface opportunities): Enterprise Modelling. The modelling of a health system. Using the systems seen as an example provide a model for health systems showing data aggregation methodologies, interface concepts etc.
  
• System Requirements Specification and Project Management
  
• Issues in software purchase and development, pitfalls and success factors. Information System Strategy development. The management of software related projects and project management software tools, including MS Project.
  
• The process and relevance of system specification, including data model concepts, system architecture and use case development, and business process review to the management of successful information system implementations.
  
• Physical, Access Control, Hardware selection and load estimate, implementation planning, conversion and training – the manager’s role in project control.
  
• Development Strategy issues.
  
• Software Evaluation: Manager’s role in purchasing health software systems. The theory of software evaluation. Tools used, including scenarios, vendor questions, scoring systems. Software contracts, system operation and support – management issues.
  
• Electronic Health Records: Consideration of national and international developments in electronic health record architecture and infrastructure. Position of this generation of health software in the scope of health software in general. Technical tools used to describe these systems.
  
• Decision Support Software: The elements of decision support software both clinical and managerial. What are the processes for introduction of these systems. Implementation Issues.
  
• Telehealth: introduction to the potential and current usage of telehealth in the international environment. Infrastructure needs to take advantage of this type of technology.

Package eight: Health information management – classification, coding and information for decision support

The objective of this package is to build basic consistency and skills in data extraction and health classification practice.

Topics will include:

• Introduction to classification concepts
  
• Principles of data extraction and information representation.
  
• Classification processes – chapter based identification of processes, rules and quality practice.
  
• The use of classification
  
• For aggregate reporting
  
• For communication in a terminology environment

Package nine: Community health services – CHS management and role of GP

This package addresses the challenges facing the urban community health service programs in China. Anticipated participants will include government officials, hospital and CHS managers, and senior GPs. Trainees will learn how to use CHS as a tool to address the systematic issues in health services delivery.

Topics will include:

• Health system reform in Australia (financing, CHS, GPs, hospitals, and pharmacies)
  
• Challenges and opportunities in PHC facing contemporary China;
  
• Primary health care partnership;
  
• Social approach in community health services;
  
• Hospital-community interface;
  
• Managing community health services;
  
• Accreditation, quality assurance, and evaluation of community health services in Australia;
  
• Training, registration and accreditation of GPs in Australia;
  
• Field visits: CHC, Division of GPs, Extended Care, hospital, Department of human resources

Package ten: Community health services – role of community nurses

This package focuses specifically on community nursing. Anticipate participants will include governmental officials, hospital and CHS managers and senior nurses, with an aim to improve their understanding of the importance of nursing in community health services.

• Introduction to community nursing;
  
• Community needs assessment;
  
• Community nursing evaluation and nursing procedure;
  
• Community health education and health promotion;
  
• Inter-personal relationship and communication skill;
  
• Community rehabilitation and aged care;
  
• Community nursing management;
  
• Palliative care;
  
• Field visits: District nursing services; Aged care and rehabilitation centre, Community Health Centre; Maternal and Child Health Care Centre.

Package eleven: Planning and evaluation

This package provides an international perspective on health planning, from the regional level to the project level.

At the completion of this project, students should be able to:

• Understand the evolution of health planning from an international perspective;
  
• Understand the major concepts of health planning;
  
• Understand the common tools used in health planning, plan implementation, and health service monitoring and evaluation;
  
• Apply planning principles to different types of planning and evaluation contexts.

Topics will include:

• History and evolution of health planning and the challenges facing China
  
• Information and evidence
  
• Needs and need assessment
  
• Spatial concepts in health planning
  
• Involving key informants
  
• Program logic concepts
  
• Strategic, service and program planning
  
• Inter-organisational planning
  
• Inter-governmental planning
  
• Human resource management in program planning and design
  
• Implementation planning
  
• Project planning and management
  
• Implementation, Negotiation and Change
  
• Principles and models of evaluation
  
• Effective and outcome evaluation
  
• Designing evaluation indictors
  
• Selecting and developing evaluation tools
  
• Evaluation process and implementation
  
• Interpreting evaluation findings
  
• Communicating evaluation findings
  
• Consumer inputs and satisfaction survey

Package twelve: Comprehensive program A combination of two or more of the above packages.

Themes could cover:

• Learning from other countries: participating in policy making;
• Health information management: manager’s role and approach;
• Investment decision;
• Financing the organisation;
• Cost analysis and cost control;
• Accreditation, quality assurance and evaluation of community health services in Australia;
• Evidence base and planning: data, information, needs assessment and forecasting;
• Program monitoring and evaluation: principles and models;
• Managing health professionals;
• Organisational structure and design;
• Defining, measuring and monitoring organisational performance;
• Hospital accreditation;
• Clinical risk management;
• Clinical governance;
• Patient satisfaction/feedback.