Monitoring the building blocks of health systems: a handbook of indicators and their measurement strategies


Publication date 1 January 2010 Category
  • Health Systems
Tags
  • Framework
  • Health Systems
  • Indicator
  • Information Systems
  • Measurement Strategy
  • Medical Products
  • Technology
  • Vaccines
  • Workforce
Publishing organisation World Health Organisation

This guide is structured around the World Health Organisation (WHO) framework that describes health systems as six “building blocks”: service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, medical products, vaccines and technologies, financing, and leadership/governance. Indicators were chosen to detect change and show progress in strengthening health systems. Indicators measure both inputs and outputs. While low- and middle-income countries are the focus, high-income country experiences are also used.

The handbook is divided into six sections, each of which covers one health system component or building block and is set out along the following lines:
-introduction to the component and related indicators;
-description of possible sources of information and available measurement strategies;
-proposed “core indicators”, supplemented, where necessary, by additional indicators that may be used depending on the country health system attributes and needs.