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The WHO's health care ranking system
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) health care ranking system measures overall attainment (OA) and overall performance (OP) (Coyne & Hilsenrath, 2002; Whitman, 2008). The underlying factors of OA and OP have been stated to be arguable in its reporting because it does not relate to the actual performance of health (Whitman, 2008). Between the two factors of overall attainment and overall performance, the overall system performance has received the most attention from the WHO’s 2000 report on rating 191 countries health systems (Blendon, Kim, Benson, 2001).
OA
OP
Overall Attainment
There are five weighted health-related components that factor into constructing the WHO’s index for goal attainment. These five indexes are: 1) Health Level, with a 25% weighted score, 2) Health Distribution, with a 25% weighted score, 3) Responsiveness, with a 12.5% weighted score, 4) Responsiveness Distribution, with a 12.5% weighted score, and 5) Financial Fairness, with a 25% weighted score (Whitman, 2008; Coyne & Hilsenrath, 2002). All five of these weighted health-related components make up the goal attainment index.
Overall Performance
Health expenditures per capita and efficiency are variables in measuring overall performance of a health system (Coyne & Hisenrath, 2002). The efficiency variable measures how short the country’s health system performance fell from its ideal maximum level, if it was operating efficiently. The WHO also interprets the efficiency as measuring how efficient countries convert its expenditures into health system outcomes (Blendon et al., 2001).
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