POPLHLTH 101 Health Systems I Course Staff Lecturer Dr Laura Wilkinson Meyers Health Systems School of Population Health Senior Tutor Monique Palaone-Smith Health Systems School of Population Health Course Email: poplhlth101@auckland.ac.nz What is the course about? Relatively rich countries such as New Zealand generally spend a large proportion of their resources on health care. But does spending more on health lead to better health? For individuals, the answer is often ‘yes’, but more resources for health won’t necessarily mean that the whole population is healthier. Whether or not spending on health leads to a healthy population depends largely on the way a country’s health system is organised. This course introduces you to the basic concepts necessary to understand how health systems work. You will learn important tools for navigating your way through the complexity of health systems, including: • • • • • The different ‘arenas’ within health (primary care, hospitals, public health) Different organisational types Professions and occupations in the health sector The economics of health and healthcare Evaluating and comparing different health systems With this basic understanding of who’s who and what’s what, the course will offer some understanding of how all these different elements interact. In the second half of the course you will learn some basic tools to assess how healthy the New Zealand health system actually is and what options there are for change. What skills will I develop? For many students in this course, it will be one of the first experiences of reading and writing academic material. The development of necessary academic skills is a process that lasts the whole of your degree. During this course you will begin to acquire these skills in a systematic way. The key skills you will begin to develop while you are studying this course include: • • • • Note-taking Comprehension of academic sources  How to make sense of academic literature Academic essay writing  How to structure research and ideas in the form of an academic essay  How to integrate academic source material into an essay  How to correctly reference academic source material Independent research •  How to find academic literature relevant to a topic Writing short exam and test answers The University has many useful resources specifically designed to help you develop these skills. If you haven’t found out about them already, the two most important resources are the Library (www.library.auckland.ac.nz) and the Student Learning Services (http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/student-learning/ ). Both these parts of the University run courses on particular aspects of research and essay writing. We will be working with the SLC and the Tamaki Library staff this semester to provide opportunities for additional support with these skills. What materials will I need for this course? This course does not have a prescribed textbook as there is not one book published that covers the topics in this course at first year level. The 2 key resources you will need are: 1. CECIL/LMS – where you can access lecture slides, additional readings, information about the course throughout the semester, and your marks. https://lms.auckland.ac.nz/courses/POPLHLTH.101/T.S1.2014/SitePages/First%20Page.aspx 2. The Course’s Web Page on the library’s web site which contains links to all your required readings and other useful research cites: https://coursepages.library.auckland.ac.nz/poplhlth/101/ How is this course organised? There are two one hour lectures and one hour tutorial each week (except for weeks 1 and 6). The content of this course is organised into 5 modules. Each module will consist of 3 or 4 lectures. Please see the course schedule at the end of this document. How is this course assessed? Course Assessment: 2 written assignments 10 tutorial quizzes 1 mid-term test: 1 final examination: 40% (20% each) 10% (1% each) 10% 40% There are two assignments for this course. Each assignment assesses the students’ understanding of the topic spanning at least one course module. It is expected that all assignments completed in POPLHLTH 101 will be: • researched using good quality, academic resources • written in an appropriate academic essay style, and • Referenced using APA style guidelines. There are 10 tutorial quizzes which will be based on specific readings for that tutorial as well as material covered in class. The quizzes consist of 5 Multi Choice Questions. At least TWO questions will be based on the readings assigned for that tutorial. 2014 Course Schedule Lecture Intro 1 MODULE 1: 2 Health Systems 3 4 5 6 MODULE 2: 7 Organisations 8 9 10 Module MODULE 3: The Health Professions 11 12 13 14 MODULE 4: The Economics of Health 15 16 17 18 19 20 Review Tutorial No Tutorial 1 Elements of Health Systems 2 Assignment One 3 NZ Health System Organisations 4 Professions in Health Care Midterm Test During Lecture Professions in the Health Sector Mid Semester Break April 14-26 Relationships between the dominant players Taking a Population Health Perspective: New Roles and Players. New Approaches. Introduction to Markets in Health Market Failure Film Film Government Intervention Economic Evaluation No Tutorial 5 Integration in Health care 6 Assignment Two 7 Markets In Health Care 8 Government Interventions What Indicators of Success Should We Use? Comparing Health Systems Internationally How well does the NZ health system perform? Why does NZ do? 9 Assessing Health Systems 23 What would need to change in order to do better? How easy is it to make changes? 10 24 Wrap Up, Evaluation & Exam Review Exam Review and Prep 21 MODULE 5: Comparing Health Systems Topic Introduction to the Course (Admin) Intro to Health Systems and Healthy People The Basic Elements of Health Systems Primary Health Care/ The New Zealand Story Ownership of organisations Functions of organisations Overview of NZ health system organisations The changing organisational landscape The Changing Face of Health Work The Traditional Players in the Game of Health: Doctors, Nurses & Managers 22