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BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 Health Production Function
Health Production function is a maximum output that is generated from a set of inputs. In the case of the healthcare industry, the health production function in a hospital setting can be described as a relationship between the combination of inputs including labor, medication, and capital through the processes by which these inputs are translated into maximum achievable output (Sielska & Nojszewska, 2022). BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 will explore the current state of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding alignment with the historical healthcare industry. Additionally, evolving economic trends and the influence of stakeholders on operational decision-making and planning will also be analyzed.
Current State of Organization and Historical Alignments
World Health Organization was established in 1948 with three main goals to promote health, serve the vulnerable population, and keep the world safe. The main aim of the organization is to provide universal health coverage to everyone throughout the world with a focus on the provision of primary health care, quality services, sustainable financial protection, improved access of people to essential medicine and healthcare products, training the healthcare workforce and advice on health policies by supporting them (World Health Organization, 2023). The organization is engaged in continuous monitoring of the data and information for improvements.
Aligning the current state of WHO with historical healthcare trends includes multiple factors. Since 1900, the healthcare industry has suffered from issues like increasing medical costs, insufficient health insurance coverage, and disparity in quality care. Since the foundation of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1947 till today, there have been several historical events and trends that have had a significant impact on the current practices of the healthcare industry and institutions (Karuppan, 2021). In earlier centuries, public awareness was next to none regarding the cause of disease and society tended to the ill people with a degree of resignation, and very few public health actions were taken.
Public Health System
During the past 150 years, the modern public health system changed based on two factors including the growth of sources and scientific knowledge and how to control the disease as well as public awareness and acceptance of disease control activities and the responsibility of people toward disease control (Institute of Medicine (US), 2020). WHO also took part in shaping the modern health system by raising public awareness and offering healthcare for everyone without financial benefits resulting in better health of the population and healthcare initiatives across the globe. WHO had a significant transformation in 2017 when an initiative was launched making it a “fit-for-purpose” organization that was designed to ensure that every initiative taken by the organization can have a long-term impact on the healthcare initiatives (Wenham & Davies, 2023). The main aim of this strategy was to align the objectives of WHO with the reforms of the United Nations (UN) and global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Change for Better AligBHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 nment with Health
Today, WHO is the only democratic world healthcare agency that is working for the betterment of people through its numerous healthcare initiatives. However, it will have to undertake reforms to retain its position and legitimacy through improvements to enhance its worldwide efficiency and impact. For instance, in 2015, the delayed response of WHO toward the Ebola virus in African countries called for serious strategic reforms within the organization. The relevance of the organization was questioned by many countries including the United States. Moreover, the global health regulations for global health security laid down by WHO failed to stop the spread of COVID-19 (Chaumont, 2020).
BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 Current HealthCare Needs
Several strategic changes are required to be implemented at WHO to align with the current healthcare needs and trends. First, WHO is an underfunded organization that has limited political power to control the member countries leading to the constant struggle to provide guidance and coordination across the member states which results in uncoordinated responses from these countries. It has no legally binding mechanisms over the member states to enforce its guidelines and standards. This requires reforms in imposing strong enforceable sanctions and regulations on member countries that fail to comply with the mandate of WHO to improve its governance structure. Furthermore, an open governance model needs to be facilitated at WHO to include the unheard voices to better channel the influence of philanthropists. The mandate of WHO needs to be clarified and narrowed down (Velásquez, 2020). It has a very broad area of action for improving the health of the population. Instead, the organization should focus on activities that can bring value to its actions.
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Another significant area for improvement is WHO’s funding and budget. The budget of WHO is very limited which according to many experts is less than the budget of hospitals in the USA. Lack of proper funding and limited budget is among the main reasons behind its failings in many areas. Limited funding puts restrictions on the organization’s ability to take full control over its scope of work. BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 changes in budget allocation are much needed through pooled resources and multi-lateral resource generation to boost its funding so that the organization can spend resources on research and development to deploy advanced technologies in healthcare reforms.
Finally, WHO needs to maintain broad technical expertise to stay abreast of current trends in the industry. It can broaden its technical expertise by taking input from lawyers, political scientists, IT specialists, urban designers, logisticians, etc. to legitimate its focus on public health recommendations by ensuring impartiality and diplomatic reforms. Moreover, bringing technical expertise will also broaden the authority of the organization on topics other than the public health realm and will have a strong impact overall on social determinants of health.
Analysis of Current Health Programs Inputs and Outputs
WHO is making global efforts to achieve better health for everyone through partnerships with countries and people around the globe to give equal chances of having a safe and healthy life to everyone. It has worked on numerous programs that have proven to be successful ranging from emerging epidemics like COVID-19 and Zika virus to diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases (World Health Organization, 2024). BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 connected and partnered up with 194 countries and is working in 150+ locations to deal with the health challenges of today for the well-being of people of the world.
One of its initiatives is to eliminate Cervical Cancer. It is a preventable and curable disease yet it is ranked as the 4th most common cancer in the world and has taken more than 350,000 lives of women in 2022. BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 input required for this program called for political reforms to engage all the stakeholders in eliminating this disease at the global level. These inputs include setting targets for vaccination, screening, and treatment of women to reach and maintain an incidence rate of below 4 per 100,000 women in all countries. Each country is given a target to meet the 90–70–90 targets by 2030 to eliminate this disease within the next century (The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2024). It is an ongoing project therefore clinical data and details can enhance the analysis of the outcomes of this program’s effectiveness.
Another notable initiative by WHO is to eliminate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) which has been among the common life-threatening consequences of unclean environments for delivering babies. The main aim of this initiative was to reduce MNT cases to 1 case of NT per 1000 live births in a district so that it no longer poses a public health problem (Dhir et al., 2021). The inputs of this initiative include public health partnerships with UNICEF, UNFPA, and the countries to control the disease through BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 strategies including screening and vaccinating women against MNT. The output of these efforts suggests that since 1999, 52 countries have initiated and expanded their efforts to control MNT whereas 48 countries have cumulatively eliminated MNT (World Health Organization, 2024b).
BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 COVID-19 Pandemic
WHO’s efforts in handling and helping the world during the COVID-19 Pandemic are laudable. WHO was involved in providing critical input and resources with a major focus on increasing the awareness of people at a global level and monitoring infection spread and mortality rates around the globe. It also ensured that people followed safety protocols by providing masks and other gear to healthcare providers and populations throughout the world. These efforts were instrumental in controlling, preventing, and reducing the mortality rate and infection spread (UN News, 2020). The outputs of these efforts included increased awareness among the public, hygiene promotion, control of infection spread, and decreased mortality rate (Giné-Garriga et al., 2021). Additionally, the data from different countries and regions can further provide information about the results of these initiatives.
Reallocate, Maintain, or Increase Funding
WHO is underfunded and requires additional untied resources and funds to manage its multiple initiatives. It can carry out extensive strategies for raising awareness about its current and upcoming campaigns and initiatives through multiple methods including seminars, meetings, and awareness events. These events and seminars can also serve as a model for raising funds for its current initiatives. Moreover, additional outreach programs can be explored by WHO to expand its impact and increase its funding and resources. It must explore innovative funding mechanisms to increase its untied funding and budget which is not linked to any specific project. It can explore similar mechanisms employed by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, for instance, to increase its funding and resource pooling for increasing its funding. Moreover, the taxation model introduced by UNITAID on airline tickets can also be followed by WHO to introduce taxes on global health transactions. Such initiatives can increase the budget and resource pool of the organization to sustain global activities and will also help to maintain a strategic focus on pursuing other funding opportunities.
Stakeholders’ Opinion on the Funding of the Program
Currently, BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 is underfunded and is facing financial limitations in its different programs leading to its delayed responses to different healthcare issues and events which has led to a critique of the governance and effectiveness of the organization. Many countries deem its responses to critical events like COVID-19 inadequate to the point where the US said it would no longer fund the organization (Leader’s League, n.d.). 20% of its funding comes from fixed contributions of 194 member states while 80% of the funds are received from voluntary contributions by philanthropists around the world. The United States is the highest contributor to its fixed funding based on population and GDP. China comes in second place. To maintain its global leadership being the only democratic healthcare organization that operates for the betterment of the population and its initiatives, WHO needs to increase its funding and resource pooling urgently.
Recently, the member states of WHO agreed to significantly improve the financial model of the organization by offering flexibility and increasing its capacity to fulfill its mandate. In 2021, WHO proposed a modern funding model which was agreed upon by member states in 2022 for fixed contributions. In addition to that, the donor foundations and philanthropists will also be encouraged to make donations to the agency. These continuous efforts will help the agency secure flexible funding from new revenue streams and allow it to broaden its financial base (Finch et al., 2022). WHO’s underfunding affected its activities and response during COVID-19 leading to disparities in UN SDGs and healthcare among and within the countries. Through stronger financing, it will be able to support the countries through its health initiatives and will provide prompt responses to adverse situations.
Conclusion
WHO is a global democratic healthcare agency that is working for the betterment of people through its numerous healthcare initiatives. BHA FPX4112 Assessment 1 needs to have better and more efficient approaches through reforms in its governance and structure. WHO’s undercapitalization undermined its ability to respond optimally in the pandemic which contributed to inequalities in progress and health coverage within and among countries and UN SDGs. With stronger financing, the agency will be better positioned to support the countries through its health initiatives to close gaps of disparities and will provide prompt response to adverse situations through medical countermeasures and delivery of medicine and other stock
References
Finch, A., Klock, K. A., Friedman, E. A., & Gostin, L. O. (2022). At long last, member states agree to fix the World Health Organization’s financing problem | Think Global Health. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/long-last-member-states-agree-fix-world-health-organizations-financing-problem
Institute of Medicine (US). (2020). A history of the public health system. Nih.gov; National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218224/
Karuppan, C. M. (2021). Operations management in healthcare: Strategy and practice. Springer Publishing.
Leader’s League. (n.d.). Www.leadersleague.com. https://www.leadersleague.com/en/news/who-funds-the-world-health-organization
Sielska, A., & Nojszewska, E. (2022). The production function for modeling hospital activities. The case of Polish county hospitals. PLOS ONE, 17(5), e0268350. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268350
The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (2024). A blueprint for the elimination of cervical cancer. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 24(1), 1–1
UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061412
Velásquez, G. (2020). The World Health Organization reforms in the time of COVID-19. South Centre Research Paper 121. https://www.southcentre.int/wp-ontent/uploads/2020/11/RP-121-rev2.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2023). What we do. Who.int; World Health Organisation. https://www.who.int/about/what-we-do
World Health Organization. (2024a). Our work. Www.who.int. https://www.who.int/our-work
World Health Organization. (2024b). Programmatic update. Www.who.int. https://www.who.int/initiatives/maternal-and-neonatal-tetanus-elimination-(note)/programmatic-update
