JSI Showcases Quality Improvement Methods at IHI Africa Forum
March 5th, 2018 | news
Staff members recently attended the 2018 IHI Africa Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Durban, South Africa to showcase JSI’s efforts to strengthen health systems and improve service delivery through effective quality-improvement methods.
Improving the quality of services is a continuous process that engages all staff across an organization. JSI works with partners to make quality assurance and improvement an integral and continuous aspect of client care at all levels of a project, starting with the formation of quality management plans at the country, district, and facility levels. To improve service quality while increasing health promotion, disease prevention, and community engagement, our programs use approaches such as the plan, do, study, and act (PDSA) to improve routine immunization and Reaching Every District (RED) to support facilities in micro-planning and effective data use.
Download our presentations below to learn more about a few of JSI’s quality improvement projects.
Use of Plan, Do, Study, Act to Strengthen Routine Immunization in Ethiopia
Adriana Alminana, program manager, UI-FHS
The Universal Immunization through Improving Family Health Services (UI-FHS) project works to improve the routine immunization system in Ethiopia. This project conducted qualitative research to understand the experience of QI teams in using PDSA cycles to improve routine immunization service delivery. Read this new brief about the UIFHS activities or download the conference presentation.
Strengthening Referral and Integration of Community and Facility Health Services through Quality Improvement
Yonas Yilma, senior QI advisor, SEUHP
The Strengthening Ethiopian Urban Health Program (SEUHP) program aims to improve the health status of the urban population in Ethiopia by reducing HIV/TB-related morbidity and mortality, and by reducing the incidence of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. SEUHP fosters strong community involvement and is working to improve health service delivery through PDSA approach. Their study found that participatory engagement of community and health center staff and regular learning process increase referral, feedback, and integration of community- and facility-based health services. Download the presentation on improving health service delivery in urban areas.
Use of Quality Improvement Tools to Improve Management, Scope, and Equity of Routine Immunization Services in Uganda
Milly Namaalwa, SS4RI
The Stronger Systems for Routine Immunization in Uganda (SS4RI) project works closely with district health teams to add quality improvement concepts and tools to the standard RED management approach to create Reaching Every Community using Quality Improvement (REC-QI). REC-QI is a package of mutually reinforcing actions to improve the management, delivery, and use of immunization services including micro-planning, quality work improvement teams, better data use, supportive mentorship and quarterly review meetings. Uganda’s MOH has adopted the REC-QI approach for nationwide use and has requested that it be adapted to serve planning needs for other health interventions. Download the SS4RI poster.
The Effect of Implementation Strength of Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC) on Facility Deliveries and Met Need for BEmONC at Primary Health Care Level in Ethiopia & Effectiveness of Supportive Supervision Visits on the consistency of Community-Based Neonatal Sepsis Management Skills of Health Extension Workers in 269 Woredas of Ethiopia
The Last 10 Kilometers (L10K) project uses a community-based strategy to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health care-seeking behavior and practices. The evidence-based practices from L10K informed strategies of the Federal Ministry of Health and have guided scale-up of programs region-wide and nationally.
The two posters presented at this conference focus on reducing both maternal and newborn mortality. Strengthening BEmONC is a key priority for providing life-saving services especially in rural areas, and was found to be effective in improving institutional deliveries and may have also improved the met need for MEmONC services. Community-based newborn care is a strategy to reduce persistently high newborn mortality through the Health Extension Program. It was found that supportive supervision visits were an effective intervention in improving the consistency of skill of neonatal sepsis management. Download the posters: BEmONC and CBNC.
