Healthcare resources entail the personnel, facilities, materials, funds, and anything used in the provision of healthcare services. One of the attributes of economic resources is that they are limited. The healthcare sector enhances its sustainability through the effective allocation of resources. Stakeholders consider several factors when distributing resources. Allocation of funds adheres to the resource urgency within the competing interest programs within the healthcare system. First, there is a need to consider whether to allocate resources to healthcare in comparison to other social needs. Secondly, there is a need to consider competing interests in the healthcare sector. Thirdly, there is the need to consider resource allocation among competing individual patients, in terms of urgency. Resource allocation refers to the distribution of resources to healthcare programs within a healthcare setting based on need and urgency. Strategic resource allocation is a crucial instrument for improving the equity and efficiency of the healthcare system.
Ethical Principles in Resource Allocation
Four main principles guide resource allocation. The ethical principles are non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice. First, there is autonomy, a principle that gives patients the full mandate to make decisions on how to allocate resources without coercion from an external force. The principle acknowledges patients as senior signatories to their healthcare needs (Ransom & Olsson, 2017). Secondly, there is non-maleficence that involves the allocation of resources basing on the potential harm. Patients consider the urgency of decisions while considering the potential risks that the decisions expose them to. Thirdly, there is the principle of beneficence that seeks to promote positive medical outcomes in patients. Healthcare practitioners encourage patients to adopt positive decisions that would enable them to realize positive results. Fourth, there is the principle of justice, which analyzes the limitations that patients have in accessing resources. For instance, it is impossible to provide patients with healthcare services that they cannot afford.
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Equality and Equity as Purposes for Resource Allocation
Every individual has the right to quality healthcare services. The government implements policies to ensure that every citizen can access quality healthcare services. The government utilizes and allocates resources to achieve the objective. The government also enacts legislation to enable underprivileged individuals to have equal opportunities in accessing such services. In the US, the government developed the Affordable Care Act of 2010 to facilitate the accessibility of healthcare coverage. The legislation compelled employers to offer healthcare insurance incentives to workers. The objective of equal and equitable healthcare resource allocation is to ensure that every individual gets access to quality primary service without hindrance from forms of disparity such as discrimination, level of income, or geographical location. Unfortunately, there is a health gap between different economic categories of society (Wong et al., 2014). Efficient resource allocation seeks to bridge the gaps of unequal distribution of healthcare resources by prioritizing placement based on the need.
Healthcare providers appropriately use proper resource allocation strategies to reach out to improve the health of everybody. Through the direct application of healthcare resources, people can access quality primary healthcare services without restrictions and impediments. In achieving equality and equality in healthcare allocation, healthcare stakeholders eliminate factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, class, income, genetics, and disability as obstacles. Such factors are morally irrelevant and should not prevent people from accessing quality healthcare services. Healthcare organizations and patients should be aware of the guidelines of resource allocation (Wong et al., 2014). There is a need to adhere to the principle of autonomy on the need to respect the needs of individuals when distributing healthcare resources. Equitable allocation of healthcare resources ensures that disadvantaged and uninsured populations can receive primary services.
Efficiency as the Purpose of Resource Allocation
Every organization strives to utilize resources while minding stability. Resources can only be useful if put at the right place, time, and purpose. Therefore, efficiency is another reason for the proper allocation of healthcare resources. For profit-making organizations, profit maximization is one of the objectives. As a result, the placement of resources should be such that it maximizes benefits in terms of revenue attraction. From a business analytical perspective, resources are part of the costs of production. The management strategically positions the resources to minimize the cost of production while able to plow in more profit into the organization (Zhang et al., 2018). To non-profit healthcare organizations, efficiency is crucial for the continued survival of the organization. The resources available should be useful in enabling the organization to continue operating and be self-independent. Therefore, the healthcare stakeholders make use of the resources in a manner that enables the organization to meet the costs of operation while being able to develop.
Efficiency in healthcare resource allocation entails output maximization with the available level of input. The input could be total health expenditure, beds in health institutions, health professionals, and health institutions. Through proper resource allocation, through efficient allocation of healthcare resources, healthcare organizations increase output and reduce costs where possible. Effective distribution of resources enhances the accessibility of basic healthcare services, which leads to the improvement of the health status of the society in question (Zhang et al., 2018). Efficiency is also realizable in terms of patient outcomes. The resources should best bring out the necessary level of satisfaction to patients and populations. Quality of healthcare is a serious concern that healthcare stakeholders must take into consideration. Resource allocation should adequately result in high-quality healthcare services. Therefore, the stakeholders should strategically allocate resources in a manner that best yields health quality healthcare to society.
Evaluation of Resource Allocation
Zhang et al. (2015) identify four major input parameters in the healthcare setting. The parameters are health institutions, beds in the health institution, health professionals, and total health expenditure. The authors also identify complementary output in terms of health services. They include outpatient visits, bed utilization rate, and hospital business income. The authors find the existence of inefficiency in bed utilization rate and outpatient visits. The study also establishes a skewed attachment of beds in healthcare institutions to low-income levels and outpatient visits to high-income classes. In making decisions on how to distribute resources, there is the need to consider the efficiency of primary healthcare services, geographic location, and quality of resources to realize the best results. For instance, high-economic classes tend to have frequent outpatients as most of them have access to insurance coverage. On the other hand, low-income classes tend not to have financial health care facilities, making them susceptible to chronic diseases. An effective resource allocation system must consider such factors to enhance the accessibility of primary care for all.
Equity is one of the objectives of resource allocation. Citizens should have equal access to healthcare services for equal needs and considerable contribution in terms of taxes or premiums while taking the level of income into account. Efficiency considers the need to adopt containment measures that reduce costs operation while maximizing output. Healthcare services should be able to avail adequate primary care that meets the needs of people regardless of any form of disadvantage. The resource allocation system should achieve a sustainable quality of healthcare in a manner that eliminates disparities in healthcare access while improving the quality of services. Allocation strategies should achieve patient satisfaction. Resource allocation should adequately address equity and efficiency in healthcare provision.
References
Ransom, H., & Olsson, J. M. (2017). Allocation of Health Care Resources: Principles for Decision-making. Pediatrics in Review , 38 (7), 320-329.
Wong, S. T., Browne, A. J., Varcoe, C., Lavoie, J., Fridkin, A., Smye, V., ... & Tu, D. (2014). Development of health equity indicators in primary health care organizations using a modified Delphi. PLoS One , 9 (12), e114563.
Zhang, X., Zhao, L., Cui, Z., & Wang, Y. (2015). Study on equity and efficiency of health resources and services based on key indicators in China. PLoS One , 10 (12), e0144809.
Zhang, Y., Wang, Q., Jiang, T., & Wang, J. (2018). Equity and efficiency of primary health care resource allocation in mainland China. International journal for equity in health , 17 (1), 140.
