Armenia is currently undergoing rigorous social and economic reform. Healthcare is one of the targeted areas where significant restructuring is envisioned. Yet, the international donor organizations, despite their good intentions, are still short of positive results. As discussed on many occasions, one reason for that may be the lack of benchmarking practices. Exactly the inadequate application of the resources has been resulting in the delays in the uncovering of the boundless healthcare opportunities, intersectoral in nature, which would positively contribute to the overall progress of the country. One such opportunity lies in creating a professionally solid and internationally recognized pediatric center. The center can be a nonprofit hospital, or a potentially publicly traded company. The center will save the best intellectual capacity in the field of medicine in Armenia. It will also train some essential managerial talent for its own consumption, and as a general asset for the country.
Another opportunity may be collaboration with the Medical University in establishing an educational and research institution in Armenia, which will be benchmarked against the best similar initiatives in the United States and other Western countries. This may be a private school, which will attract a large body of international students and promote the image of Armenia as a leader in medical education in the region. The attractiveness of the Center can be heightened through its unique blending of education, research and clinical practice opportunities. The initiative will be intersectoral in as much as it will be clearly positioned at the intersection of education and healthcare, while being a self-sustained institution. One may even see a remote opportunity for a Center to transform into a company, which then goes public. There are certain models to follow in the US, for example, Res-care, Inc., Phoenix University, and others. Interestingly, the amalgam of education and actual healthcare can be kept.
Healthcare is one of the pivotal areas for the NPB testing in Armenia. There are, however, some important concerns about its application in Armenia. The first and foremost one is the political issue, which will hinder the transformation of the sector. These include: a. powerful hierarchy the government which will definitely resist to change in order not to lose its monopolistic position, b. The cluster of the top management in the hospitals and other healthcare institutions, which lack critical management skills, but traditionally have solid positioning in the field and would oppose any change. These factors to a certain extent diminish the expected return on the Intersectoral iniatiatives, however continuos and hard work in this direction may be capable of lifting these barriers soon.