An implementation model for health system reform

Health system reform in post-industrial countries has become a dominant problem facing national governments. This problem is aggravated by the pace of social and technological changes and continued economic pressures. In order to accomplish health system reform, governments must develop new policies to redirect or change the present course of the system. Health system reform involves broad based change in behaviors of consumers, providers and the government itself. The direction of the change requires nothing less than shifting the focus of the system and its actors from its predominant emphasis on sickness treatment (negative-health focus) towards an emphasis on maintaining amd promoting the highest possible standards of personal health (positive-health focus). This paper introduces an implementation model for health system reform. The model was developed based on major supports and constraints presently operating in the United States health policy context. Major support is provided by the existence of both theoretical and structural frameworks upon which the policy shift can be built. The structural framework includes four laws and their associated activities which outline national health goals and objectives. A major constraint is the implementation conundrum. Policy is government's primary tool to achieve system reform. However, while government is strong in creating policies, it is extremely weak in implementing the very policies it creates. This implementation conundrum consists of three barriers. These barriers are: (1) a universal fear of change; (2) early stage in development of the technology of social change; and (3) the failure of government to plan for implementation of the very policies it creates. The implementation model for health system reform is introduced to aid policy makers and analysts in overcoming this implementation conundrum. The model recognizes policy as a process of change and provides two stages for use in translating theory and aims of policy into a formula for action. Stage one is used to identify the factors of change necessary in achieving policy reform. Stage two identifies the appropriate process of change to achieve successful outcomes. The model can be used in planning for both national and local levels of health system reform by both public and private sector players in the health arena.