THE SHARP WAY TO PLAN HEALTH-CARE SERVICES - A DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM AND SOME ILLUSTRATIVE APPLICATIONS IN NURSING HUMAN-RESOURCE PLANNING

SHARP provides an analytical framework that for the first time brings together all major elements of the health care system and helps to org anize our thoughts about the system as a system. (The acronym stands f or System for Health Area Resource Planning; SHARP has been developed for Ontario, the largest of the Canadian provinces.) A framework for d iscussion is especially important during the current period of ''healt h reform'', spurred largely by concerns to bring cost increases under control. The central message of this paper is that the planning proces s should be well informed and should take an integrated view of the he alth care system so that major future repercussions of actions taken t oday can be foreseen (albeit imperfectly). In reforming the system, it is important to anticipate both the requirements for health care serv ices and the resources that are likely to be available to satisfy thos e requirements. That is where SHARP can be helpful. With its comprehen sive and forward-looking view of the health care system, SHARP can use fully inform the current debate about the future of the health care se ctor. The main features of SHARP are described and the system is illus trated with special reference to nurses and the services that they pro vide.