Performance-based financing and changing the district health system: experience from Rwanda

Autor: Robert Soeters, Christian Habineza, Peter Bob Peerenboom
Jazyk: angličtina
Předmět:
Zdroj: Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Vol 84, Iss 11, Pp 884-889
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0042-9686
DOI: 10.1590/S0042-96862006001100013
Popis: Evidence from low-income Asian countries shows that performance-based financing (as a specific form of contracting) can improve health service delivery more successfully than traditional input financing mechanisms. We report a field experience from Rwanda demonstrating that performance-based financing is a feasible strategy in sub-Saharan Africa too. Performance-based financing requires at least one new actor, an independent well equipped fundholder organization in the district health system separating the purchasing, service delivery as well as regulatory roles of local health authorities from the technical role of contract negotiation and fund disbursement. In Rwanda, local community groups, through patient surveys, verified the performance of health facilities and monitored consumer satisfaction. A precondition for the success of performance-based financing is that authorities must respect the autonomous management of health facilities competing for public subsidies. These changes are an opportunity to redistribute roles within the health district in a more transparent and efficient fashion.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals