Local Governance of Devolved Hospital Services: The Bukidnon Model

The study is anchored on the concept of decentralization, which is to overcome the failure of central government in addressing people’s needs and priorities. Specifically it deals with devolution, which is one administrative category of decentralization that typically involves legal transfer of administrative powers to political units. This is essentially a public administration conceptualization of decentralization to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service provision through reallocation of decision-making and resources to peripheral areas. The conclusions of the study are the following: (1) the provision of hospital services can be a potential income center and not entirely an expense account; (2) devolved hospital services can sustain the hospital’s operation and ensure that services are accessible to the poor; (3) the translation of health development plan to improve health service delivery necessitates local government’s strong political will; (4) to operate the devolved hospitals as income centers is a major shift in governance with the view of sustaining hospital operations; (5) the Bukidnon model provides for a win-win situation for both the PhilHealth and the Provincial Government; and (6) the Bukidnon hospital system demonstrates cost-efficiency through an appropriate mix of primary, secondary, and tertiary hospitals.

Key words - Local governance, devolved hospital services. cost effeciency