Collaboration on a local, national and international basis

Collaboration on a local, national and international basis

This section will discuss reasons as to why healthcare leaders need to ensure governance systems within their organisations facilitate collaboration on a local, national, and international basis.

Changes in the healthcare environment require healthcare leaders to collaborate with other key players within the landscape. Collaboration on a local, national and international level helps health leaders gain insight into improvements that are needed. For instance, leaders can collaborate with other healthcare leaders working in the health systems of economically advanced nations to share best practices, learn from each other, and solve common challenges (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018). Health leaders also need to ensure that governance systems within their organisations adopt and are up to par with International Health Regulations to strengthen capacities to respond to public health events that may arise. These regulations allow for cross-border cooperation thus strengthening capacity for preparedness and response to threats of epidemics or pandemics.

Collaboration on a local basis is also critical in the changing health environment. The need arises because social determinants of health affect the quality of life and have a substantial influence on health inequalities (Green et al., 2022). Leaders need to ensure that governance systems especially in primary healthcare settings prioritise collaboration with local government to ensure quality health planning that integrates the social determinants of health, thus promoting health equity. This is because local governments are better placed to tackle current and emerging social factors that affect public health (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018). In the modern times, the Australian Healthcare system has come under pressure due to the increasing complexities in health conditions, which calls for interprofessional collaboration for effective care coordination. However, the mode of governance in interprofessional collaboration is a key determinant of whether the collaboration will be successful or not. Healthcare leaders need to take responsibility for coordinating and organising duties between the various healthcare staff groups working in multidisciplinary settings for effective sharing of problem-solving responsibilities and planning for patient care (Folkman et al., 2019).

With the rising demand for healthcare services in Australia, funding for healthcare is increasingly becoming a burden for governments (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018). Australia has a relatively good health system but affordability of services is at an all-time high. This is attributed to the increase in the number of baby boomers ageing, increasing risk factors for chronic diseases, and the rising expectations of community health standards that are making funding healthcare unsustainable (Parliament of Australia, 2023). Leaders need to ensure the governance systems within their organisations facilitate collaboration with relevant entities at the local and national levels to garner alternative sources of funding for healthcare, For instance, leaders in primary health networks can collaborate with local health districts within states to pool funding for addressing joint health priorities. This form of funding model has been used in New South Wales to support value-based care across the hospitals and incentivize local autonomy (Koff et al., 2021). However, collaborative efforts at different levels may create conditions for conflict due to differing health priorities and competing institutional norms. Furthermore, a lack of clarity on the roles of different levels of government in creating health reforms can hamper collaborative efforts (Parliament of Australia, 2023).

In summary, the healthcare environment is rapidly changing due to increased costs of health care and unsustainable funding mechanisms. To effectively adapt to the changing health environment leaders in healthcare settings need to facilitate collaboration on a local, national, and international basis where possible.