issues-poor investment decisions and regulation too easily lead to over-or undersupply-they should still aim to avoid extreme undercapacity in for ur areas Physical capital and capacity. adequate health care coverage depends on a sufficient supply of hospitals and related physical resources, but even developed economies sometimes have trouble meeting these requirements. In Britains National Health Service(NHS), for example, some 41 percent of patients requiring elective surgery have to wait longer than four months for their operations, an indication of undercapacity or of inefficient use of available capacity. Demand assessments and sustainable capacity. Traditional metrics may be misleading. In the United States, for example, simply counting the number of beds per capita suggests undercapacity. However, actual statistics for admissions and for the duration of hospital stays show that the country has too many hospital Labor. The failure to match labor supply with demand is a key factor limiting the provision of health care services. It is not easy, even in developed economies, to ensure an adequate labor supply-the training of doctors and nurses involves long lead times and can be made more difficult by professional associations that exercise a large degree of control over the number of educational and training positions in some countries. Many nations have resorted to im porting health care workers-although this practice is proving increasingly controversial as it often takes those workers from the developing countries that educated and trained t Technology. The right quantity and mix of technology is necessary to secure an adequate supply of the most efficacious drugs and the most effective equipment Innovation must be actively promoted to ensure that technology continually improves, but technology must be targeted to meet the health needs of the population in question. The newest and most expensive machines or devices are not always the most appropriate; technology like physical resources, labor, and IT, may be in under-or oversupply. 4. Safeguard the quality of suppliers Efforts to improve the quality of health care, which varies considerably among systems and even more strikingly within them, face two major challenges. First the lack of reliable data on quality, safety, and service can hinder the development and monitoring of the most effective treatments. Second, quality and service problems often stem from system-level issues, such as a lack of adequate funding, so they have to be examined along with the other supply factors. Policy makers should focus their attention on three areas of im portanceissues—poor investment decisions and regulation too easily lead to over- or undersupply—they should still aim to avoid extreme undercapacity in four areas. Physical capital and capacity. Adequate health care coverage depends on a sufficient supply of hospitals and related physical resources, but even developed economies sometimes have trouble meeting these requirements. In Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), for example, some 41 percent of patients requiring elective surgery have to wait longer than four months for their operations, an indication of undercapacity or of inefficient use of available capacity. Demand assessments and sustainable capacity. Traditional metrics may be misleading. In the United States, for example, simply counting the number of beds per capita suggests undercapacity. However, actual statistics for admissions and for the duration of hospital stays show that the country has too many hospital beds. Labor. The failure to match labor supply with demand is a key factor limiting the provision of health care services. It is not easy, even in developed economies, to ensure an adequate labor supply—the training of doctors and nurses involves long lead times and can be made more difficult by professional associations that exercise a large degree of control over the number of educational and training positions in some countries. Many nations have resorted to importing health care workers—although this practice is proving increasingly controversial as it often takes those workers from the developing countries that educated and trained them. Technology. The right quantity and mix of technology is necessary to secure an adequate supply of the most efficacious drugs and the most effective equipment. Innovation must be actively promoted to ensure that technology continually improves, but technology must be targeted to meet the health needs of the population in question. The newest and most expensive machines or devices are not always the most appropriate; technology, like physical resources, labor, and IT, may be in under- or oversupply. 4. Safeguard the quality of suppliers Efforts to improve the quality of health care, which varies considerably among systems and even more strikingly within them, face two major challenges. First, the lack of reliable data on quality, safety, and service can hinder the development and monitoring of the most effective treatments. Second, quality and service problems often stem from system-level issues, such as a lack of adequate funding, so they have to be examined along with the other supply factors. Policy makers should focus their attention on three areas of importance