CONCEPTUAL BASIS FOR AN ENTREPRENEURIAL M ANAGEMENT OF LOCAL HEALTH SYSTEMS

Health management has become a fashion and it is now common to talk ab out strategic or service management, or of total quality management ap plied to health systems. However, all these elements of bussiness mana gement are being translated to health systems without a previous analy sis on the implicit health model and the rationality of the prevalent production functions, which can lead to a higher level of efficiency b ut with an inadequate use of resources. This paper suggests the import ance of integrating the advances in management and health sciences and proposes what are considered to be the conceptual basis for the desig n of a management tool geared to conduct local health systems with eff ectiveness, efficiency, quality and equity.