Care Community Hub Baseline Report

Although Ghana has experienced significant declines in maternal mortality and under-five mortality, the country must increase their rate of improvement to reach their SDG. To do so, Ghana has made efforts to strengthen human resources for health (HRH), an essential approach to lowering mortality levels and attaining established health related goals.

Ghana has implemented various policies and strategies in developing its HRH and providing care at the community level over the last 15 years. The program has turned into a national community health care approach, becoming Ghana’s primary strategy to extend healthcare provision to those who have been beyond the reach of the existing system.

The Care Community Hub uses information and communications technology via a smartphone application on mobile phones (CHN on the Go) to improve connectivity and career development among community heath nurses, increase their linkage and interactions with a professional network and supervisors, and provide clinical refreshers. The Care Community Hub (CCH) initiative was part of the Innovations for Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health (Innovations) project, an initiative led by Concern Worldwide in collaboration with John Snow, Inc., which aimed to provide the government of Ghana with an innovative solution to address barriers in health worker motivation.

This report outlines the activities and results for the baseline assessment of CCH. The study followed a mixed method approach with qualitative and quantitative data collection involving CHNs and their supervisors from five districts in the Greater Accra and Volta regions.

The baseline shows avenues where CCH can help nurses, such as improving their clinical skills, as well as improving work scheduling and time management. The results presented in this report were collected to feed into the design of the CCH pilot and the development of the “CHN on the Go” mobile application and provide evidence to measure the direct outcome of the CCH pilot. There is potential for a program such as the CCH pilot to help health workers in countries such as Ghana to address factors that drive their motivation and ultimately improve health worker performance, service quality, and health outcomes.