Abstract
Empanelment is a foundational strategy for building or improving primary health care systems and a critical pathway for achieving effective universal health coverage. However, there is little international guidance for defining empanelment or understanding how to implement empanelment systems in low- and middle-income countries. To fill this gap, a multi-country collaborative within the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage developed this empanelment overview, proposing a people-centered definition of empanelment that reflects the responsibility to proactively deliver primary care services to all individuals in a target population. This document, building on existing literature on empanelment and representing input from 10 countries, establishes standard concepts of empanelment and describes why and how empanelment is used. Finally, it identifies key domains that may influence effective empanelment and that must be considered in deciding how empanelment can be implemented. This document is designed to be a useful resource for health policymakers, planners and decision-makers in ministries of health, as well as front line providers of primary care service delivery who are working to ensure quality people-centered primary care to everyone everywhere.
Highlights
An emerging body of evidence from across the globe shows that health systems based on a foundation of strong primary health care (PHC) are more efficient and produce higher value and better health outcomes[1,2,3,4,5]
As was recently reaffirmed at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care and through the Astana Declaration[6], PHC is a critical strategy for countries hoping to achieve the ambitious dual agendas recently adopted by the global health community: universal health coverage (UHC)[7,8,9] and integrated people-centered health services (IPCHS)[7,10]
Empanelment enables PHC systems to move from reactive care oriented around visits, to proactive care that leverages the primary health care team’s potential to improve population health
Summary
Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Publication in Gates Open Research does not imply endorsement by the Gates Foundation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
