La importancia de la administración en salud

Resumen

This article is a reflection about the importance of administration in health systems. Administration has tools, which applied to the health systems branch could help develop an overall vision of the systems, optimizing human, technical and financial resources, to be able to lead health institutions to a growth and efficiency situation. Very frequently, distinguished different medical specialists are put in charge of administering in different hierarchical levels of health institutions, often lacking experience an specific formation on administration expert in the leadership who do not know anything about health problems. Finally the necessity of giving administrative training is pointed out, since the main goal of the health systems institutions is in fact giving health service, so important decisions must be taken by doctors. En todos los paises del continente se aprecia una mayor demanda de la poblacion para recibir servicios de salud. Este fenomeno no es nuevo pero, conforme el tiempo pasa, el incremento se hace evidente, tanto en volumen como en complejidad, representando un reto constante para las instituciones, y en especial para los gobiernos, que cada vez mas se constituyen en los responsables de la salud de la comunidad.1 Un sistema de salud se establece para satisfacer una funcion social manifestada por necesidades y demandas de servicios de salud. Los sistemas de salud son una interrelacion de recursos, finanzas, organizacion y administracion que culminan en el suministro de servicios de salud a la poblacion.2 Recibido 16/02/04 Aceptado 19/03/04