The sixth agency in the community (building no. 6) is the Health Agency. This agency is part of the District Department, together with the Life Planning and Nutrition Agencies.

The three agencies mainly handle social services, which include education, health, nutrition, and life planning. The agency presidents are assisted in their duties by departmental agents, also known as district presidents. The Health Agency’s primary role is to promote the community’s health by facilitating access to public health and medical services for all participants.[1] Towards this, the agency puts in place measures that promote physical fitness, recreation, and nutrition as integral parts of public health. The Health Agency formulates mechanisms through which participants can access quality healthcare, and it provides an automated system for healthcare practitioners to enable them to optimize their individual and collective services to the community.[2]

The roles that the Health Agency performs to achieve its objectives are automated. From the agency’s system, participants are able to get most of the services they need related to where to seek treatment and what they need to do to stay healthy. This system is part of an integrated intranet with other agencies. The intranet runs on, among other technologies, an algorithmic backbone that enables it to give personalized information to each participant according to their health needs.[3] Should a participant be unable to get the assistance they need from the online system, they can seek direct assistance from the district presidents. The district presidents additionally monitor how well adapted the system is to participants’ needs and recommend any changes to the agency president, who adjusts the system in addition to formulating agency strategy with input from healthcare professionals.

The Health Agency achieves its objectives through a set of specific roles. It performs these roles either by itself or in coordination with other agencies within the community.

Core Responsibilities

The Health Agency’s primary role is enabling the health of participants. Toward this end, it coordinates the efforts of different parties who play integral parts in promoting health in the community. The agency works to improve the community’s capacity to handle health issues, while also empowering participants with the information necessary to lead healthy lives. Its core responsibilities are:

Provide a system that coordinates the efforts of health practitioners (nurses, doctors, clinical officers, and others)
Promote healthy living through recreation and physical exercise
Facilitate the development and maintenance of health standards

Coordinating health practitioners

The Health Agency’s system provides avenues through which health practitioners can coordinate. This is done to ensure that their efforts are aligned with each other, optimizing their output. In a system where every one of the practitioners is a business by themselves, such an agency is needed to prevent the community’s medical practice from appearing disparate and failing to capitalize on each other’s expertise.[4] The Health Agency coordinates the practitioners’ efforts, working on factors such as proximity to each other and information sharing.[5]

Promoting healthy living

Participants are able to find important and personalized information through the Health Agency’s system that details how they can stay healthy and where to seek medical services. The system shares information about physical exercise and access to exercise facilities in the community. The agency also gives participants detailed information on the available health practitioners in the community, their specializations, cost, and experience, so that participants can make decisions that are well informed and they are comfortable with.[6] The system has a mechanism through which practitioners with the best reviews are easily identifiable, while also working to ensure new entrants still have a chance in a field with more established names. Using personal health data gathered through the community’s advanced technology, the system gives preliminary advice to participants about the medical services they might need, as well as the best way of seeking such services.[7]

Development and maintenance of medical standards

Under the auspices of the Health Agency, the community’s health practitioners and other interested parties, including the community’s public, develop acceptable standards of health, including prevention, quality of health services offered, and others. After such formulation, the agency is at the forefront of ensuring that these standards are implemented through the automated system. It also prescribes any punitive actions that should be taken on those found in contravention of said standards.[8] In addition to this, the Health Agency’s system facilitates the accreditation of practitioners before and during their work in the community. Participants who wish to be recognized as healthcare practitioners apply through the online system, which vets their qualifications and approves or declines the applications.[9]

Coordinated Responsibilities

Coordination between the Health Agency and other agencies is based on three dimensions that define inter-agency collaboration in the community. The agency coordinates horizontally (with other agencies in the District Department), vertically (with other agencies in the General Community Support Vertical), and diagonally (with other agencies beyond the department and the vertical).

Horizontal coordination

The District Department’s other two agencies coordinate with the Health Agency in order to improve the services the Health Agency offers. The Health Agency coordinates with Agency 4 – the Life Planning Agency within the framework of curriculum development, so that the planning curriculum focuses on health and what participants can do to safeguard their health. The Health Agency also coordinates with the Life Planning Agency to have participants include their health and well-being as integral parts of their life plans and focus points. The Health Agency liaises with Agency 5 – the Nutrition Agency to enable participants to appreciate the link between healthy eating and nutrition and their health prospects. The Health Agency works with the Nutrition Agency to promote proper nutrition as a core element of public health efforts.[10]

Vertical coordination

The Health Agency coordinates with Agency 3 – the Leasing Agency so that medical practitioners can have working spaces and equipment that are conducive for their practice and for participants. The Health Agency coordinates with Agency 18 – the QHSE Agency to ensure that working conditions, medical practice, and community property meet acceptable health standards and safety regulations. The two agencies also work towards ensuring that the environment is conserved in a way that enables it to positively influence participants’ health.[11] The Health Agency coordinates with Agency 24 – The Asset Management Agency, to ensure the community has enough medical equipment, and that such equipment is used optimally to maximize benefits to the participants.

Diagonal coordination

The Health Agency liaises with Agency 22 – the Public Facilities Management Agency so that the development of public facilities is strongly biased towards physical exercise. Such facilities are also positioned in a way that enhances their access and usability. During the participant entry process, the Health Agency liaises with Agency 1 – the Human Relations Agency in vetting the health status of incoming participants. The agency also liaises with Agency 9 – the Commercial Bank Agency and Agency 8 – the Investment Bank Agency, giving health-related information that could have a bearing on loan applications or other types of business financing.

Conclusion

The importance of health in any society cannot be overstated. The community’s prime asset is the participants. The Health Agency focuses on ensuring that their health is maintained so that the community can ultimately meet its objectives concerning other aspects, including economic and social, among others. The agency achieves this by setting up and managing the system needed to facilitate medical practice, as well as other work relevant to health. It also facilitates participants’ access to health services, giving information where necessary. The agency is also committed to preventive care, facilitating not only screening and immunization but also the promotion of proper nutrition and physical exercise. As its roles are mainly facilitative and automated, its concern is giving information as needed and ensuring that the automated system performs optimally.

[1] By facilitating access to healthcare, the Health Agency helps people get the right healthcare services needed to preserve or improve their health. To do so, such services should be adequate, relevant and effective. Facilitation must also tackle barriers to access of healthcare, whether they are organizational, social or financial (Gulliford, M. et al. “What does ‘access to health care’ mean?” Journal of Health Services Research & Policy (2002): 186-188).

[2] Healthcare professionals need institutional support to align their services and achieve the best health outcomes for the community. The Health Agency will seek to do this by equipping them with the necessary equipment, tools and platforms through which they can work, collaborate and advance their services to the participants (Jacobs, B., et al. “Addressing access barriers to health services: an analytical framework for selecting appropriate interventions in low-income Asian countries.” Health Policy and Planning (2011): 1–13).

[3] Automated health systems, today found online, are particularly popular since patients see them as more empowering, by enabling them to participate. The participant feels more confident, and therefore actively participates in their healthcare. It can be argued that, in the case of the community, a more targeted and personalized service will yield even more active participation (Lu, H. “Online health consultation: examining uses of an interactive cancer communication tool by low-income women with breast cancer.” International journal of medical informatics 80.7 (2011): 518-528).

[4] Besides the fact that this is the community’s economic model (each individual is an independent business), the community will avoid the pitfalls associated with public health delivery. As seen with Medicare reforms in the 1960s, public services result in decreased accessibility and quality of services offered, while doing little to reduce the financial cost (Dirnfeld, V. “The benefits of privatization.” Canadian Medical Association journal 155.4 (1996): 407-410)

[5] The Health Agency will utilize health informatics to assist healthcare practitioners collaborate better. The use of informatics has positive effects on practitioners ability to share information, encourage patient participation, and in the process significantly improve outcomes (HIT. 6 Ways Health Informatics Is Transforming Health Care. 02 03 2016. 23 06 2019).

[6] Health informatics, as seen in this paper, improve patient participation. Patient-centered care is recognized as a characteristic of high quality care, which the Health Agency will seek to provide access to (Snyder, C. “The role of informatics in promoting patient-centered care.” Cancer journal (Sudbury, Mass.) 17.4 (2011): 211-8).

[7] Collaboration between health practitioners is a key part of healthcare practice. It helps improve their expertise, and enable their services to be more evidence-based. Online tools, including healthcare informatics, play an important role in facilitating this (Asemahagn, M. “Knowledge and experience sharing practices among health professionals in hospitals under the Addis Ababa health bureau, Ethiopia.” BMC health services research 14 (2014): 431).

[8] Healthcare standards are a necessary element in the aspiration to provide high quality healthcare. These standards guide practitioners on acceptable practice, while also empowering patients to know their obligations and rights. Through these standards, the community enables practitioners to “do the right things the first time” (Tabish, S. “Standards for better health.” International journal of health sciences 3.1 (2009): 5-8)

[9] Through accreditation, the Health Agency certifies that a health practitioner meets the minimum requirements needed to practice in the community. Accreditation also improves patients’ confidence that they are dealing with a certified professional. Accreditation also brings about uniformity in care, and sets the stage for professionals to interact and synergize their efforts (Quimbo, S. “Should we have confidence if a physician is accredited? A study of the relative impacts of accreditation and insurance payments on quality of care in the Philippines.” Social science & medicine 67.4 (2008): 505-10).

[10] The strong link between nutrition and public health means that for the community to effectively facilitate preventative healthcare, it must pay close attention to the kind of food participants are exposed to. Poor nutrition is because of lack of information, lack of access to nutritious food, and lifestyle habits. The Nutrition and Health Agencies will strive to provide information and facilitate access to the right food, while encouraging lifestyle habits that are healthy (Lawrence, M. and T. Worsley. Public Health Nutrition: From Principles to Practice. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2007)

[11] The environment has a direct effect on human health. Aspects such as exposure to hazardous substances, unsafe working conditions are detrimental to health, especially when it is considered that there exists a strong link between poor air quality and cancer, and some types of respiratory and cardiovascular ailments (Healthy People 2020. Environmental Health. 2014. 22 06 2019)