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Index - Major Sections
Site Map
Product and Services _______________ Index - Same Level Subject
Index - Child Subjects |
IntroductionThe first emphasis for this site arose out of what I will call the "Guatemala Circle." The Guatemala Circle" was a group of highly esteemed personage that formed a panel for a round table discussion group in Guatemala for a class from the International Health Department of Tulane Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In this panel were some of the top officials of USAID, CARE, Peace Corp, Guatemala Health Ministry and others. It was there that one of the students asked the panel the question, "what do you think we can do as students to enable us to perform our jobs better?" The unanimous answer was that each should have a clear understanding of management and financial management procedures. The panel said that public health schools were graduating MPH's and PhD's in Family Planning, Maternity and Child, Nutrition, Environment, and many other disciplines but very few of these people know how to manage a project. They have had no formal training in management. The panel said that these health care professionals were going out into the world and asking funding organizations for money, yet, they have no idea of how to manage people or the money. Although many of these people are intelligent, they still do not know how to use the formal tools of management. Here is our argument. Just as medical doctors attend school for years to learn how to treat their patients, it is the "business - trained" individual that know how to manage. This Web site is dedicated to this training. It takes a "Business" view of health care and its management. It was this discussion that convince me that one of the more important things that could be done in public health is the education and training of public health professionals to manage their projects effectively and efficiently. It would not only improve the quality of research and care but also minimize the costs to effect this care. This, to me, could save as many lives and improve the health of the people just as some new vaccine. The western governments traditionally, give money based on political reasons. In general, very little accounting for that money is required and very little is done to see if the recipients actually did what they said they were going to do. However, now that may not be the case. These same donor governments are worried about their own poverty and problems at home and their funding agencies’ budgets are often less now than they were a few years ago. Now these funding organizations have to justify why they are giving the money. Just as in business, donors now want their projects to be successful and sustainable. Funding organizations are demanding that the recipients of these funds prove that they are getting the results that they have promised. They are demanding measurable indicators. In summary, funding organizations are demanding cost-benefit analysis and accountability, just like a business (well...at least they should) The third emphasis to this site comes from the business experiences of this sites authors. In consulting open the years, it has been found that the greatest problems encountered by managers have been the lack of information. Without this information managers can only make decisions based on "gut feeling" or politics (one very important ingredient especially in International Health Care). Making decisions in his manner is both costly and ineffective. Management must have information and they must know how to use this information to be able to make informed intelligent decisions. This last statement is probably one of the most important aspects of management. Many "managers" like to think of themselves as managers, yet, not only do they lack the knowledge of management tools and how to use them, they lack the knowledge that there are management tools. The forth emphasis is again taken from Guatemala. It was reported that over 210 NGO's were in the country doing approximately the same type of research, family planning, nutrition, home projects. Bangladesh is reported to have over 800 NGO's doing the same thing. Yet, none of these organizations were sharing information with others in order to minimize costs or increase their knowledge base. Each continued to reinvent the wheel. Many inhabitants had been interviewed and surveyed so many times that they knew the questions before they were asked. Yet, none of this information was saved. The researcher would take this information back home, store it on his computer, run a few reports, and it would never be used again. No trend analysis, no comparisons, and no verification of data was done. It was and still is a tremendous waste of time and money. A discussion was started with the Chairman of the School of International Health, Dr. Jane Bertrand, concerning the possibility and advantages of combining this information into a Centralized Data Warehouse where all may benefit.
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