Week 4 questions - Assignment Example

Running head: Health Sciences and Medicine   Not for profit organization theory is the most appropriate theory for health systems. This is because, under the system, the billing for the client’s services is done considering the client’s ability to pay. This way the system enables health care access to all. Moreover, the system is characterised by motivated volunteers who provide health care, not because of remuneration, but for the sake of service to the needy (Devers et al., 1994). Vertical integration is an appropriate model for health system because it aims at providing coordinated health care services to a defined community.

It focuses on clinical services and sees the system as the centre of the system. It takes community priorities and needs into account, and therefore, access to health care is central to the model. It is referred to as a closed system because, “only members of the health plan”, such as insurance companies and hospitals, can access the delivery system (Greave, 2009, p.1).Horizontal integration is best for a system model which incorporates more or less independent organizational units on the same hierarchical level, like Hospital mergers (Devers et al., 1994). In this case, the merged hospitals are not fully interrelated, and they can allow non members to access the delivery system.

For example, an insurance scheme can adopt different agreements with different clients and sponsor their clients to be treated in the hospitals.The parameters of system design that affect system performance are for instance, financing, provision of health services, resource generation and the model used in integration, just to mention a few. The effects are manifested in either poor performance or satisfactory performance in the system application.ReferencesDevers, K. J., et al. (1994). Implementing organized delivery systems: an integration scorecard.

Health Care Manag Rev, 19, 7-20.Greave, R. (2009). Across the Pond–Lessons from the US on Integrated Healthcare. International Journal of Integrated Care, 9. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/article/viewArticle/504/1006