A aprendizagem processa-se hoje, de modo global, quer através da maior possibilidade de mobilidade das pessoas, quer através do carácter virtual do conhecimento.
Entre 27 e 29 de Junho de 2007, decorrerá em Lyon (França), a Conferência Anual da European Health Management Association, que é provavelmente um dos melhores fóruns científicos mundiais na área da gestão da saúde.
Em Portugal, as deficiências a nível de gestão estratégica e operacional, são muitas. Temos, aqui, levantado diversas. Precisamos que a hierarquia e os operacionais das organizações de saúde portugueses, possam beneficiar da aprendizagem de outros países e mercados.
Deixamos aqui, a temática da Conferência deste ano, que só por si, nos dá pistas sobre o que se irá passar no mundo da saúde, nos próximos anos:
- New values have been introduced in health care in the last two decades. The introduction of regulated competition in a number of countries has been accompanied by greater discretionary power for health care delivery organisations and a more dominant role for patients. These have led to greater freedom of choice for patients and freedom of strategy for delivery organisations.
- Making profit in health care has become increasingly acceptable (at least in some countries) as has the use of market-driven incentives such as claiming a larger market share. Money has become a value in itself. Sometimes it seems as if we are dealing with a money-driven system with efficiency as the principal performance indicator for success.
- There is a serious risk that values will disappear in face of market forces that can undermine the solidarity of the system, introducing inequality in access and quality. The currently popular performance indicators primarily measure quantifiable outputs and unfortunately we do not have efficiency parameters which can measure caring, compassion and empathy. It therefore becomes difficult to convince managers and policymakers that these are values which deserve serious attention.
- Health care delivery needs to be based on trust - trust between doctor and patient but also trust between policy makers and health care managers. This trust relation is at risk when control mechanisms, accounting procedures and measurable indicators and benchmarks are used as the basis to judge performance. There is a need to reconcile both elements – values and measurable performance. High trust needs high transparancy.
