Representatives of sickness funds shared their experience
In a chronic underfinanced system of public health care sickness funds are one of the alternative sources of health financing that are able to promote the development of health care, to protect patients’ rights, and to maintain population?s access to health care.
In Ukraine operate currently about 230 sickness fund schemes, which sometimes have their own peculiarities due to different organisational approaches in delivering health care to its members. In order to identify, generate and standardise general management principles, to promote its integration, and to improve the professional management skills of its managers, there was carried out a target group training programme in Zhytomyr.
In the capacity building training module ?Organisation and management of sickness funds in Ukraine? took part 20 participants from sickness funds of different regions of Ukraine. The training was carried out in a five days programme cycle that lasted from March 15 to 19, 2010. It was designed by the all-Ukrainian citizens? organisation ?Association of workers? sickness funds Ukraine? in cooperation with National Medical University named after O.O. Bohomolets, Kyiv. Managers and experts listened to professional lectures and participated in seminars and workshops. The chairman of the ?Association of workers? sickness funds Ukraine? Professor Valentin D. Pariy introduced in his lectures trends in health care development of European Union and the CIS countries, modern approaches of developing health care in Ukraine, evidence-based medicine as an objective source for quality assurance in health care, analysis methods for assessing the economic performance of sickness funds, organisational and historic aspects of the existence of sickness funds in Ukraine and the role of the association of workers? sickness funds Ukraine.
Professor Alla V. Stepanenko, PhD and deputy head of the Central Committee for pharmaceuticals of the Ministry of Health Ukraine (MoH) described the state standard form of pharmaceuticals, its present situation and its implementation perspectives. Tatyana M. Dumenko, deputy director of the department of health care standardisation at the MoH presented the rational therapeutic use of pharmaceuticals according to safety rules and its results of 2009 including the cooperation with the State Pharma Centre of the Ministry of Health Ukraine and the sickness fund of Zhytomyr region to track adverse effects of drugs. B. H. Kaunzinger, expert within the framework of the technical cooperation programme between Germany and Ukraine ?GTZ/CIM?- held a lecture on marketing principles and measures for health insurance schemes. Alexander Y. Gusak, deputy head of the Oblast state health care administration presented the experience of the work of expert-monitoring committees at the regional state health administration and the imporatnce of the sickness fund of Zhytomyr region from the perspective of state authorities.
The practical parts of the training programme were carried out at the premises of the charitable organisation “sickness fund of Zhytomyr region?. The participants became acquaintanced with the on-site work in the departments and gathered experience about interactions between a sickness fund scheme and health care providers at primary and secondary health care levels. In particular, the participants received knowledge about the collaborations with the Zhytomyr regional hospital named after Herbachevsky, and with the central district hospital of Zhytomyr. They also learned issues about the decentralised network of branches of the sickness fund in the Zhytomyr region, as well as how to deal with corporate clients, state authorities, and family physicians based on a sickness fund?s perspective.
The participants of the programme were particularly interested in the quality assurance scheme of the health service delivery process, and the automated resource management system.
Galina Pustovaya, head of Voznesensk city sickness fund shared her impression confirming that she appreciates having had the opportunity to attend such courses. She told that a lot of useful information has been given to the participants and stated that she sees further development potentials for sickness funds based on the particular experience from Zhytomyr region. Vitaly V. Shevchenko, executive director of the charitable organization ?sickness fund of Poltava region? added that taking part in such activities allows sharing best-practice knowledge and encourages the professional improvement and implementation of new techniques. Thus, these assemblies are useful to find new colleagues for cooperation from other sickness funds. Thanks to the achievements and experience of the sickness fund of Zhytomyr region, other organisations are able to learn from existing best practice and may unite resources to jointly move forward to improve the provision of health care in Ukraine.
All participants expressed their satisfaction and proposed to continue carrying out such kind of measures on a regular basis. Special thanks to V. D. Pariy and his crew for the excellent organisation of the educational process.
Svitlana Myhalyuk
Read More