The Managers Electronic Resource Centre

Citation

(2002), "The Managers Electronic Resource Centre", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215gag.001

The Managers Electronic Resource Centre

The Managers Electronic Resource Centre: http://erc.msh.org/ Keywords: MSH, Foreign policy guidance, Public health, Quality in healthcare

The featured Web site in this issue is an extremely useful site: The Manager's Electronic Resource Centre. The site is produced by Management Sciences for Health, Inc. (MSH) is a private, non-profit educational and scientific organization working to close the gap between knowledge and action in public health, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State., For full access to all the resources, membership is required, but is free. Most of the resources, however, are available without membership. The entire site is available in English, and most of it in French and Spanish as well.

The home page is very busy, in that it is packed with information, but is basically divided into three columnar sections: Quick Links to popular resources; Content: tools and information grouped by topic; and Contact: basically member contact services. The content available in the first two of these columns is as follows:

Quick links

The Provider's Guide to Quality & Culture: this is designed to assist health care organisations throughout the US in providing high quality, culturally competent services to multi-ethnic populations. However, despite its US target it is useful information for other countries.

The Health Manager's Toolkit: this is an electronic compendium of tools designed to assist health professionals at all levels of an organization to provide accessible high-quality and sustainable health services. It is particularly useful for managers who lead others to produce results. It includes spreadsheet templates, forms for gathering and analysing data, checklists, guidelines for improving organizational performance, and self-assessment tools that allow managers to evaluate the systems underlying their entire organization. The tools have been developed by organizations working throughout the world to improve the delivery of health services.

The Guide to Managing for Quality: this is concerned with how to consistently provide high-quality health services and how to improve the quality of services.

International Drug Price Indicator Guide: this provides information to help determine the probable cost of pharmaceutical products, compare current prices paid to those available on the international market, and assess the potential financial impact of changes to current drug list.

The Manager online: The Manager is published quarterly in English, French, and Spanish. It is a continuing education management publication that presents in-depth discussions of management strategies for improving health and family planning services. Full text versions of The Manager are available online

Additional Resources: this is currently under development, and appears to be a section that will provide links to other useful sites

Tools and information grouped by Topic

Managing Human Resources: this is divided into three sections: assessment and planning, performance improvement, and training. It tools and readings that will help you to strengthen your human resources

Managing Your Organization's Finances: Managing Your Organization's Finances is divided into two topics: financial sustainability and financial management. It also contains documents from the USAID-funded APHIA Financing and Sustainability (AFS) Project in Kenya, the goal of which was to improve the government's ability to provide effective health services to meet the needs of the country's growing population.

Managing Information: this is divided into two topics: use of data, and monitoring and evaluation. It is concerned with management information systems that produce complete, accurate, and timely information, to enable health managers to make measured decisions concerning financial self-sufficiency, client satisfaction, and quality control.

Keeping Your Organization Sustainable: In order to build the sustainability of an organization, managers need to ask and answer key questions about how their staff performs, as a group, and how well managerial systems support their work. This section will help to identify strengths and weaknesses and act to increase the organisation's ability to face the challenges of the next decade. It is divided into two sections: assessment, and management

Managing Community Health Services: This section of the ERC offers readings and tools for assessing the state of community health services, expanding the role of the community in the promotion, delivery and funding of desired services, and working with boards of directors. It is divided into three topics: information for management and assessment, working with community members, and managing community-based organizations.

Planning for your Organisation: This section describes the planning process from the organisation's vision of the future, through an analysis of the current situation, to concrete strategies and plans to achieve its goals. Planning for your Organization is divided into two areas: assessment and planning, and implementation and expansion.

Reforming Health Systems and Programs: This section explores the changing roles of managers at the central and local levels, and the skills managers must have to function effectively in a decentralized environment. It is divided into two areas: planning reforms and implementing reforms. It also includes the speaker notes from presentations given at the 125th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

Managing Drugs and Supplies: this is divided into six areas: assessment, selection, procurement, distribution, use, and management support. In addition, the print publication, The International Drug Price Indicator Guide, is available here as a multi-year database.

Managing Quality and Clinical Services: This section provides information and tools to run services more efficiently and to improve their quality through a focus on the client. Managing Quality and Clinical Services is divided into three areas: assessment and planning, quality improvement, and sustaining quality

General Management Topics: This section contains readings, tools, and special online publications exploring important topics of management and areas of rapidly growing interest, such as the Internet. It is divided into two areas: e-learning and communications, and other. It includes full text articles and case studies from The Manager.

Most of the sections listed above have a similar format. They include full text articles and case studies from The Manager; a compendium of tools, information and other resources which can be downloaded immediately, plus contact information for other resources; and short "gems" – various tools, methods, and approaches called gems because they are small and potentially very valuable to those who acquire them. They also provide, for members, the opportunity to search the member community database for colleagues with similar interests, either locally or internationally; and to post experiences, questions and insights on a message board for discussion by an international audience of health managers. They also provide an email service for those whose use of the Internet is largely, or entirely, confined to email, and the opportunity to search for events in your area of interest and/or your region of the world

All in all, this is a very useful and easy to use site.