Posición del experto médico en la administración de servicios sanitarios

Abstract

Any health problem of consequence facing a central health administration today will generally present several aspects: 1. The health (medical) aspect. 2. The legal, including constitutional, aspect. 3. The financial aspect. 4. The functional aspect, meaning integration into the machinery of the health services at large. 5. The sociological aspect, relation to other related functions of society. All these aspects are intimately interwoven and only represent various sides of the same problem. In any other field it would be accepted that the only way to handle a problem of this conglomerate character is to establish an adequately composed team, the members of which among themselves cover the various types of insight and experience. This approach is now called for also as far as the central health administration is concerned. Old traditions, prejudices, and vested interests will have to be overcome to also achieve this on the part of the medically trained administrator. On such a team the lawyer will be a full member in his own right, as a specialist in legal questions, as will various types of specialists in administration. Since the goal-setting has to do with health, however, all participants will find it only natural that the medical specialist in health administration should be the head of the team. One should also recognize from the very first moment that a team entrusted with administrative

Publicado en ingles en el American Journal Public Health 56(10):1722-1733, 1966