Health Economics and Comparative Health Systems

Running head: HEALTH ECONOMICS AND COMPARATIVE HEALTH SYSTEMS
HEALTH ECONOMICS AND COMPARATIVE HEALTH SYSTEMS
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1HEALTH ECONOMICS AND COMPARATIVE HEALTH SYSTEMS
Introduction:
The health statistics of New South Wales has indicated the growing burden of disease on
the public sector of NSW. Increase in the hospital visits due to the increase in the poor health
condition has been found to be 672000. Increase in the triage category or cases of immediate life
threatening has been increased by 10% (Aubusson, 2018). Such condition has created excessive
pressure on the emergency department of the health care centre, thus has increased the pressure
of health department of NSW government. It has been found that, lack of information about the
health care reforms and lack of correlation between the information processes is one of the main
factor that restricts the general population in order to access the adequate health service. Demand
for the improvement in the health system has been increased and increase in the expectations of
the health care workforce has been found (McMullen et al., 2011). It has been found that
utilizing the process of electronic communication and information system could help to reduce
the issue of lack of information and correlation regarding the health reforms (McLean et al.,
2013). With increasing information about health system the access to the adequate health service
will increase, thus it could reduce the burden of disease and pressure of NSW government
effectively. In this regards the NSW government has taken effective strategies to promote e-
health and digitalization of health system (health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). The purpose of the report is
to evaluate the strategies. The following paper will provide a brief discussion including positive
factors of the strategies, limitations, gaps and recommendations for addressing the gaps.
e-Health priorities:
Positive factors of e-health strategy:
There are many positive factors of the strategies provided by the NSW government for
enabling e-health, for example, digitalization of health care system. Digitalization includes using

2HEALTH ECONOMICS AND COMPARATIVE HEALTH SYSTEMS
electronic medical record to facilitate the clinicians to order medical tests and reports digitally,
picture achieving communication to allow the clinicians to get report and images within 24
hours, HealtheNet to correlate the records of the hospital with the National e-health record and e-
blue book to develop the care plan and improve the quality of care. Such changes would help to
improve the quality of care, reduce the time in accessing report to start treatment, documentation
of patient’s health and develop patient centred care. The investment in the health infrastructure
would help to increase community health and outpatient care, service monitoring process,
electronic medication management process, keep clinical information, deliver health service in
rural areas and strengthen the process of e-governance (health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). The digital
innovation would help the practitioners to incorporating best practice in the clinics (Lee,
McCullough & Town, 2013).
Limitations:
Beside the improvement in the information and communication process and development
of infrastructure to improve the facility and access of health service, it is important to focus on
the economic impact of the strategies and the limitations as well. Most of the healthcare staffs
are trained in the traditional process, thus it is important to train the staffs regarding the use of
digital infrastructure. Such process is time consuming and some staffs may face difficulties in
adapting such technologies (Safdari, Ghazisaeidi & Jebraeily, 2015). On the other hand, in the
rural areas, due to lack of education and employment, economic condition is not adequate to
accept the technology. It may be difficult to access such technology in remote areas (Popescu,
2014). Such limitations could affect the implementation of the strategy of enabling ehealth.
Gap in the strategy: