An ILHZ is defined to be any form or organized arrangement for coordinating the operations of an array and hierarchy of health providers and facilities, which typically includes primary health providers, core referral hospital and end-referral hospital, jointly serving a common population within a local geographic area under the jurisdictions of more than one local government.

ILHZ, as a form of inter-LGU cooperation is established in order to better protect the public or collective health of their community, assure the constituents access to a range of services necessary to meet health care needs of individuals, and to manage their limited resources for health more efficiently and equitably.

For these to happen, existing ILHZs in the country must strengthen their operations and sustain their functionality. Regardless of the organizational nature of each ILHZ, whether these are formally organized, informally organized or DOH-initiated, the overall aim is to make each ILHZ functional in order to perform its abovementioned purposes and tasks.

It must be recognized that a good inter-LGU coordination in health is one that secures health benefits for the people living in LGUs that are coordinating with one another.   A functional ILHZ therefore is to be viewed as one that provides health benefits to its individual residents and to the zone population as a whole. The ILHZ functionality is defined mainly by observable zone-wide health sector performance results in terms of:

(i)        improved health status and coverage of public health intervention of the zone population;

(ii)       access by everyone in the zone to quality care; and
(iii)      efficiency in the operations of the inter-local health services.

Replication of Exemplary

Replication:  Sharing Good Practices and Practical Solutions to Common Problems

By virtue of Administrative Order No. 2008-0006, dated January 22, 2008,  the DOH has adopted the integration of replication strategies in its  operation.

Replication is learning from and sharing with others exemplary practices that are proven and effective solutions to common and similar problems encountered by local government units, with the least possible costs and effort.  The underlying principle of replication is to avoid reinventing the wheel and benefiting from already tested solutions.

LGUs can share lessons learned from practices that work, as well as share experiences systematically.  A structured organized process of replicating, including proper dissemination of  validated exemplary practices and making Lakbay Arals more meaningful and useful, help ensure the chances of achieving best results.  Replication makes  learning  more  interesting and exciting as one gets to see  the model and its benefits firsthand.