Problems in reforming health care centers

Reformation of therapeutic and prophylactic institutions attached to various institutions and ministries is and important problem of public health at the modern stage of its development. A model developed and tried in Magnitogorsk can serve as a perspective trend of such reforms. A medical institution with mixed form of property has been created. The institution was set up by administration of the territory and a plant (Magnitogorsk metallurgical plant). Creation of a new health center as a non-commercial institution promoted its integration in the municipal public health system; the institution possesses all the potentialities of a budget organization and retains close contact with the plant. Such a solution of the problem improved the financial status of the health center and promoted its adaptation to marketing conditions. Attraction of additional finances from industry to municipal public health allowed the administration of the health center start and carry out internal restructuring aimed at priority development of outpatient care, restructuring of the bed fund, technological updating, and, in general, more rational utilization of the available resources.