Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Jul 2016)
ROMANIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE EUROPEAN UNION CONTEXT
Abstract
The aim of this research paper is to analyze the Romanian health care system in the context of European Union, highlighting the differences in terms of life quality and resource allocation. The results show that although improvement has been noticed in the past years regarding life expectancy of the population, it can be mainly explained by an increase in the income of the population, one of the significant factors that predicts the well being of the individuals, according to World Health Organization. Meanwhile, Romanian healthcare system continues to be underfinanced, placing Romania on the last place among EU countries. Moreover, data show that Romania lacks medical personnel, while the discharges of hospital inpatients are above EU average. These are the signs of a poor human resource management and the effects can be seen looking at the high number of personnel leaving the system. In this context, the dominant organizational culture found in hospitals, along with the corresponding values, play a significant role in the quality of services given to population. The research found, using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument, that the dominant culture in the sample is hierarchical, confirming the initial hypothesis. The analysis of the data also reveals that the preferred culture is still hierarchical, followed by market and clan. However, there are some differences between the actual organizational culture and the preferred one, so some policies could be chanced so the employees would be more engaged in the decision making process. This would in turned make them feel more valued and this will develop, in turn, a higher involvement in their work and it will also increase the cohesion of the organization, around its main values and behaviors. In the lack of a health care financing at least similar to EU average, the organization culture can be a valuable instrument to foster higher quality of the services offered to the population.
