The Future of Health Services Planning

By 2020 health professionals in both public and private settings were increasingly performing planning-like activities, and community-wide attempts to collect and share health-related data were being initiated. These efforts were in response to decades of health system operation unbridled by any rational health planning. A paradigm shift from “medical care” to “health care” had occurred at the end of the twentieth century to address deficiencies in the system. However, this new paradigm was not effective since it continued to treat health conditions as the problems rather than the symptoms. In view of this, the population health model was introduced as a means of improving community health. This model attempts to address the health conditions of populations rather than individuals and focuses on the mitigation of the social determinants of health. The current transition from traditional community health needs assessments to population health assessments reflects this development. While the changes have not been as dramatic at the organizational level, healthcare organizations are nevertheless attempting to adapt to the changing environment through planning.