Adjustment to Population Health Needs

Intentionally designing the system to adapt and respond to health needs and trends within the local population. It requires leaders to regularly generate, collect and analyze information on population health status and needs; appropriately use this information to set and implement priorities; and continually monitor, re-assess, and adapt as needed. This process should consider social determinants of health and a country's epidemiological, political, socioeconomic, and environmental context, all with a focus on equity.

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Timeliness

The ability of the health system to provide primary care services to patients when they need them, with acceptable and reasonable wait times and at days and times that are convenient to them.

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Safety

The practice of following procedures and guidelines in the delivery of PHC services in order to avoid harm to the people for whom care is intended.

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Efficiency

Efficiency refers to the ability of a health system to attain its desired objective(s) with the available resources, while minimizing waste and maximizing capacities to deliver care to those who need it.

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Effectiveness

Effectiveness measures whether health care and services are driven by evidence, adhere to established standards, and achieve their intended result.

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People-Centeredness

People-centeredness means organizing the health system around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases.

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First Contact Accessibility

The capacity of a primary care system to serve as the first point of contact, or a patient's entry point to the health system, for most of a person's health needs.

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Coordination

Coordination of care refers to the system's ability to oversee and manage patient care over time and across levels of care to ensure appropriate follow-up, minimize the risk of error, and prevent complications.

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Continuity

Continuity is the degree to which a patient experiences a series of discrete healthcare events as coherent and consistent with their medical needs and personal context.

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Comprehensiveness

The provision of holistic and appropriate care across promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, chronic and palliative service needs.

Indicators
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Existence of an M&E framework for national health plan meeting criteria
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Priority setting is informed by data and evidence
Related Concepts

Delivering high-quality primary health care requires many elements of the health system working effectively together. This mapping explores how different concepts with the framework relate to one another.

Upstream elements are those that are required to develop or improve a particular concept. Absence or poor performance of an upstream element is expected to negatively impact the performance of the concept of focus.

Complementary elements are those where improvements or developments in this area will be mutually beneficial to the concept of focus but not required for improvement.

UPSTREAM CONCEPTS
COMPLEMENTARY CONCEPTS
UPSTREAM SUBDOMAINS
Adjustment to Population Health Needs
COMPLEMENTARY SUBDOMAINS
Funding & Allocation of Resources
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Understaning the financial capacity for PHC funding and cost-effectiveness measures helps to inform priority setting including resource distribution.
Information & Technology
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Priority setting, a component of Adjustment to Population Health Needs, relies on the availability of diverse sources of surveillance data on emerging and existing population health needs. This up-to-date health information also helps to guide innovation and learning efforts and are essential for monitoring, evaluating, and scaling innovations.
Multi-Sectoral Approach
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The innovation and learning needed for adjustment to population health needs is a multi-directional process that relies on shared learning and input from stakeholders across all levels of the system. Encouraging broader social participation in the decision making process (including community-based representation and a multisectoral approach) helps to strengthen accountability across sectors and forge collaborative partnerships for equitable and sustainable initiatives.
Policy and Leadership
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Strong governance structures, such as PHC policies, leadership commitment, and dedicated budgets, help to establish and enforce participatory priority setting mechanisms that help PHC structures adjust to population health needs.
Purchasing & Payment Systems
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Understanding the financial capacity of Purchasing & Payment Systems can help inform priority setting across the PHC system.
Management of Services
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Effective management supports the adoption and adaptation of novel and ongoing quality improvement initiatives for innovation and learning activities at the facility level. Performance measurement and management also enables the monitoring and evaluation of innovations at the facility level.
Organization of Services
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Quality management infrastructure, a component of organization of services, creates and enables a systems environment for improvement, which is part and parcel of building a culture of innovation and learning.
People-Centeredness
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Understanding innovation and learning from the perspective of the patient is critical to designing innovations that meet patient needs and ultimately enable the design of person-centered health systems.
Population Health Management
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Priority setting exercises at the national level should both inform and be informed by local priorities. Additionally, stakeholder engagement from the local level is an important tool for making innovations responsive to existing and emerging social concerns and priorities relevant to the sub-national level.
Improvement Strategies

Each PHCPI Improvement Strategy is designed to help decision-makers begin to plan and enact reforms within their own context by providing additional resources and evidence on the topic, as well as practical recommendations for action.

The explainer graphic below presents a quick overview of the concept of Adjustment to Population Health Needs. View the full Improvement Strategy on Adjustment to Population Health Needs to learn more.

Adjustment to Population Health Needs explainer graphic
Potential Funding opportunities

Interested in understanding how this topic intersects with investment opportunities from major funding streams? The Global Frameworks Mapping provides a starting point to help identify and make connections between key PHC topics, relevant funding initiatives, and investment cases.

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Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19
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Universal Health Coverage for Sustainable Development (Issue Brief)
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UNICEF Health Strategy 2016-2030
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UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025
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UHC in Africa: A Framework for Action
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The UNICEF Health Systems Strengthening Approach
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Supplies Partnership 2021-2030
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Strategy 2030: Achieving a Prosperous, Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Asia and the Pacific
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Phase V (2021-2025)
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Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
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Maternal and Newborn Health Thematic Fund 2018-2022
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Integrated Development
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Institutional Strategy
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HIV and Universal Health Coverage - A guide for civil society
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HIV
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Health Sector Framework Document
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Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026
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Emergency Response
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2020-2022 Strategic Initiatives