1b Systems Theory and Improvement Flashcards
What is a system?
A system is a collection of parts (or subsystems) integrated to accomplish an overall goal
What is a system of people called?
An organization
What must health care systems be able to do in order to survive?
Improve.
How should health care systems aim to improve?
Learning about making and encouraging change, managing the change within and across organizations, and learning from the changes tested will characterize the sustainable, thriving health systems of the future.
What is the relationship between goals and concepts/methods?
Setting goals was once enough, but it is clear that goals must be coupled with the concepts and specific methods to produce sustainable change.
What is “systems thinking”?
cross-disciplinary study of how anything in the universe might be related to anything else.
… is a way of helping a person to view the world, including its organizations, from a broad perspective that includes structures, patterns and events, rather than just the events themselves. This broad view helps one to identify the real causes of issues and know where to work to address them
What dies systems thinking accomplish?
It examines the relatedness and organisation and of all things, regardless of what, where or when. It investigates the principles that are common to all complex entities, and develops model (mathematical, schematic or conceptual) which can be used to describe things, and the relationships between them. (AROW)
What are complex systems, such as social systems, comprised of?
Comprised of numerous subsystems. It is arranged in hierarchies.
It is integrated to accomplish the overall goal of the overall system.
What are some of the “boundaries” that each subsystem has?
Includes inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes.
All geared to accomplish an overall goal for the subsystem.
What are some system characteristics?
A number of distinct entities, called elements.
The elements are in some kind of relationship to each other.
What does the relationship between elements in a system generate?
This relationship generates a new entity at a ‘higher’ level of analysis (the elements with their relationships constitute a system).
It is possible to distinguish between the elements and relationships that are part of the system, and those which are outside of it (the system has a boundary). (AROW)
What is a health system?
The system includes all actors, institutions and resources that undertake health actions - where a health action is one where the primary intent is to improve health.
What are some other intrinsic goals of a health system besides improving population health?
to be responsive to the population they serve, determined by the way and the environment in which people are treated, and
to ensure that the financial burden of paying for health is fairly distributed across households.
What are four key functions that determine the way inputs are transformed into outcomes that people value?
Resource generation
Financing
Service provision
Stewardship
What is “health”? (according to wikipedia)
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person’s mind and body, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain.
