Healthcare Governance and Management: NZ and Australia

This essay undertakes a comparative analysis of healthcare governance and management, focusing on the specific functions within the public sector in New Zealand and Australia. It begins by defining and contrasting the concepts of governance and management in healthcare, exploring their roles in improving and maintaining the quality of patient care. The essay then delves into the healthcare systems of both countries, highlighting the governance structures, including the roles of federal, state, and local governments, as well as the management practices in place. A detailed comparison of the healthcare systems in New Zealand and Australia is presented, examining their funding models, access to services, and the roles of various healthcare bodies such as District Health Boards and Primary Health Organizations in New Zealand and the Medicare Benefits System and Pharmaceutical Benefits System in Australia. The analysis includes a discussion of the challenges and strengths of each system, supported by relevant literature, and concludes with a summary of the key differences and similarities in governance and management approaches. The essay also addresses the integration of literature, correct APA formatting and citations.

Running Head: HEALTH CARE 0
GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE
STUDENT DETAILS

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Governance in Health Care........................................................................................................3
Management in Healthcare........................................................................................................5
Governance in NZ and Australia................................................................................................7
Management in Australia and NZ’s health care.........................................................................8
Comprising of health care system of both the countries............................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
In this study, there will be a discussion about the health care services in New Zealand
and Australia. Governance and management in healthcare is the approach to improve and
maintain the quality of patient care and hospitals. Health care management also referred as
the healthcare administration system. Both countries have three stages for maintaining their
health care administration that are centre or federal government, state government and local
government. Roles and responsibilities of these department is to ensure that all the
professionals are working effectively and they are maintaining proper health care
environment. In Australia, hospital, clinics, pharmacies and alliance health care services are
handled by both public and private enterprises (Vanvactor, 2012). In New Zealand (NZ),
health care services are almost free for people who are the resident of NZ. In this assignment,
there will be discussion about the governance and management of healthcare in Australia and
NZ with specific literature example.

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Governance in Health Care
Governance in the healthcare system alludes to a wide scope of controlling and
principle making related capacities completed by governments/choices producers as they
look to accomplish national wellbeing targets that are helpful for all the patients and citizens
of the nation. Governance is a political procedure that includes adjusting contending impacts
and requests. Governance includes (1) setting vital course and goals. (2) making approaches,
laws, standards, guidelines (3) directing and ensuring that the key objectives are going in
right direction. Governance also maintain the strategic direction of policy development and
implementation. Furthermore, it regulates or govern the behaviour of health care
administration (Bismark & Studdert, 2014)
Governance in administration means working together with different areas which
consists the private segment and public authorities. They work for keeping up the health care
system in a participatory and comprehensive way. When countries received help from
another country for improving health care system, then governance should be done in such a
way which promotes the leadership in hospital and health care institute (Barbazza & Tello,
2014).
In other words, governance in health care implies about the improving efficiency,
effectiveness and responsiveness of the health care system. Thus, Legal authority has the
right to conduct monthly or quarterly survey. It means, government authorities can conduct
the survey of the public or private health care systems (Burgess & Radnor, 2013). In this
survey they consider the cleanliness of the hospitals, behaviour of the staff members, which
method of treatment hospitals are following, etc.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes health care governance as a
“Stewardship”. WHO further categorized healthcare governance into various types that are

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Coherent decision making, stakeholder participation, transparency, supervision, regulation
and stability (Brinkerhoff & Bossert, 2013).

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Management in Healthcare
Health care management also called as healthcare administration. Management in
healthcare is the method which is used by the professionals in order to establish effective and
efficient leadership in the hospitals, health care institution, etc. It also describes about the
health care policies designing, financial management, regulation, maintaining procedure and
supplier relationship, etc (Frenk & Moon, 2013). Quality and performance management is
also the part of management in health care practices (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
Health care is the complex and dynamic process which requested leadership and
supervision qualities for executing the operations. Health care managers are appointed in
every organization in order to conduct or take important decisions regarding the regulation,
rules plan and policies. In this literature, it is described that managers in health care sector
have generally two domains (Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2017). These domains are of two types
external and internal domains of the managers. Internal domain refers to those area where
manager should focus on improving the health care service more adequate such as addressing
daily issues, types of staff, financial performance, quality management services of the
organization, etc. External domain includes about controlling the outside force which can
harm the functions of health care.
Management in health implement six sigma functions has described below:
 Planning: The managers or leaders are required to set directions and framework for
accomplishing the targets or goals of health care system.
 Organizing:
The management of health care function refers to the overall maintain of the
organization policies and regulation. It means determining teamwork assignments,
distribution, control components, etc.

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 Staffing:
It means to retain and acquisition of doctors or nurses. Management in healthcare
should provide effective measures for protecting the rights of human resource. On the
other hand, management should maintain the well working environment for retaining
the human resource.
 Controlling:
In this function of management, it is required to monitor the performance and other
parameters of the health care.
 Directing:
Providing effective direction, leadership and motivation are conducted in the directing
function of the management.
 Decision making:
In the decision-making function, management is responsible for making effective
decisions which required for governing the functions of the health care system.

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Governance in NZ and Australia:
District health boards, crown entities agencies, capital investment committee, mental
health review, NASO, Public health unites and Non-government organizations are the health care
bodies in the NZ. The public health care services framework in New Zealand gives inhabitants
access to free medical clinic care as well as emergency treatment. To get to public health care
services, patients need New Zealand residency status. While visiting a General Practitioner (GP),
drugs or medications are available at the subsidized rates (AIHM, 2019). The government of NZ
recorded the total spend of 16.2billion dollar in the year 2016-17 (TREASURY, 2016). While
publishing the budget of the year 2016-17, the government of NZ mentioned that they recorded
the highest expenditure incurred on the health care services.
The Australian federal government, local government, state government, Australian
Health care and Hospital Association (AHHA) are responsible for providing the health care
services. The federal government provides the funding and support to rest of the two
governments. The government provides free hospitals and general medical coverage program
access to Australian natives, inhabitants with a lasting visa and New Zealand residents following
their enrolment in the program and affirmation of identity (Lucinda, 2016). Restricted access is
given to natives of certain different nations through formal agreements. Other guests to Australia
are not allowed to enjoy free medical services (AIHM, 2019). In the year 2014-2015 total health
care expenditure was estimated to be 9 to 10% of the total GDP. 2/3rd of these expenditures came
from the treasure of the government. In July 2014 the Australian government raises the amount of
taxes in the head “Disability Care”.

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Management in Australia and NZ’s health care
This part will discuss about the management in the health care system of both the
countries. Australia’s medical department is split into two different departments that are the
Medicare Benefits System (MBS) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits System (PBS). People
who avail MBS care, they enjoy the privilege to get completely or partially free services on
their MBS card. Under PBS, it provides reduce cost treat to all the population. Apart from
this, the government of Australia provides cost-free or minimal cost treatment to their
citizens under various programs. It is funded by the money provided by the general public in
the form of taxes (Drucker, 2012).
New Zealand's general wellbeing framework is financed by citizens, the Accident
Compensation Corporation (ACC) and government offices. Numerous individuals
additionally take out private protection and a few administrations are paid for out of pocket,
like health and medical insurance plans. New Zealand and Australia’s health care system are
majorly similar, yet New Zealand’s health care is more connected with their private health
services (Kvedar, Coye & Everett, 2014).
NZ’s health care department in distributed in two types that are District Health
Boards (DHBs) and Primary Health Organizations (PHOs). DHBs are government-supported
which are responsible for providing subsidizing wellbeing and handicap benefits. PHOs co-
ordinate nearby essential wellbeing administrations, uniting specialists, medical caretakers
and other wellbeing experts.

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Comprising of health care system of both the countries
Australian health care is government-funded. Health care departments are monitored
and regulated by the Federal government Australia. Amazing fact about Australian health
care is that death rate from the services of the medical department is the lowest in Australia.
However, patients have to wait for a long time to avail the services. Many times, patients also
have to face challenges in getting an appointment with the doctors. Doctors are overweighed
with work pressure to cure the patients (Baum, et. al., 2013).
Health care system of New Zealand are completely free for the citizens of the nation.
NZ's health care services are counted as the best health care services in the world (Valentine,
Nembhard & Edmondson, 2015). However, longer lifespan of the population of NZ shows
that primary health care is the best in NZ. Health care departments regularly increase the
awareness among the patients about how they can achieve better health (Peabody, 2015).
Apart from this, citizens of the NZ also have to wait for long in order to avail free services.

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Conclusion
It has been concluded that the governance in health care system includes about the
controlling practices which can harm the functioning of the health care. Management in
healthcare is the widespread medicinal services just as improving quality, productivity,
viability and responsiveness of wellbeing frameworks. Components of building up great
administration practice and estimating its effect has been an issue of continuous discussions
with certain reporters concentrating on structures, while others liking to focus on the
wellbeing results.

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References
AIHW. (2019). Health care quality and performance. Retrieved from:
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-overview/health-care-quality-
performance/about-health-performance
Barbazza, E., & Tello, J. E. (2014) A review of health governance: definitions,
dimensions and tools to govern. Health policy, 116(1), 1-11.
Baum, F., Freeman, T., Jolley, G., Lawless, A., Bentley, M., Värttö, K., ... & Sanders, D.
(2013) Health promotion in Australian multi-disciplinary primary health care
services: case studies from South Australia and the Northern Territory. Health
Promotion International, 29(4), 705-719.
Bismark, M. M., & Studdert, D. M. (2014) Governance of quality of care: a qualitative
study of health service boards in Victoria, Australia. BMJ Qual Saf, 23(6), 474-482.
Brinkerhoff, D. W., & Bossert, T. J. (2013) Health governance: principal–agent linkages
and health system strengthening. Health Policy and Planning, 29(6), 685-693.
Burgess, N., & Radnor, Z. (2013) Evaluating Lean in healthcare. International journal of
health care quality assurance, 26(3), 220-235.
Drucker, P. (2012). Management. Abingdon: Routledge.
Frenk, J., & Moon, S. (2013) Governance challenges in global health. New England
Journal of Medicine, 368(10), 936-942.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of
health care organizations. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

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Kvedar, J., Coye, M. J., & Everett, W. (2014) Connected health: a review of technologies
and strategies to improve patient care with telemedicine and telehealth. Health
Affairs, 33(2), 194-199.
Peabody, F. W. (2015) The care of the patient. Jama, 313(18), 1868-1868.
TREASURY. (2016). The Treasury’s role. Retrieved from
https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/interest-areas/health
Valentine, M. A., Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2015) Measuring teamwork in
health care settings: a review of survey instruments. Medical care, 53(4), 16-30.
VanVactor, J. D. (2012) Collaborative leadership model in the management of health
care. Journal of Business Research, 65(4), 555-561.
Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017) Health care information systems: a
practical approach for health care management. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.