Comparative analysis of community health planning: transition from CHPs to HSAs.

With the implementation of the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act, comprehensive health planning is moving into a new phase. In search of lessons to guide future planning efforts on the part of the Health Systems Agencies (HSAs) established by the act, this paper reviews organizational and operational characteristics of ten relatively "successful" local comprehensive health planning agencies. Several problems are delineated that HSAs will likely share with their predecessors and strategies for confronting these problems are suggested.