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Understanding quality improvement

Quality Improvement (QI) is the term used for a group of methods that adopts a problem-solving approach to improve health worker performance through review of service delivery processes, planning for improvement and acting upon those plans.

QI is a part of several Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s investments in low-income settings, including in Nigeria, Ethiopia and India. But little is yet known about how QI works through, for example, leadership, quality of teamwork, supportive supervision or organisational culture.

In Lagos, Nigeria our research aims to understand the way in which quality improvement in the public and private sectors is influenced by health system context.

In Ethiopia, IDEAS uses novel qualitative and quantitative methods to understand how QI approaches can influence health worker behaviours to improve care and how they affect both the delivery and the utilisation of services by patients. We also partner with the UCL Institute for Global Health on a multi-country project designed to understand how the Quality of Care Network operates at country level. Working with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), IDEAS applies a country case study approach to study the national and local level experience of the network to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in Ethiopia.

Past event
Quality of Community Based Newborn Care in Ethiopia

Community-Based Newborn Care (CBNC) is an Ethiopian national initiative launched in March 2013 as a means of bringing life-saving care to mothers and newborns at the community level within the Ethiopian health system. CBNC aims to improve newborn survival through the strengthening of Primary Health Care Units and the...

Ethiopia Understanding quality improvement Implementation strength Intervention coverage Research findings Scale-up

Published content

Journal article
Improving the use of focus group discussions in low income settings

This paper authored by Pauline Scheelbeek et al and published in BMC Medical Research Methodology describes how six exercises were used in 32...

Ethiopia Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Research findings
Blog Post
Listening to Gombe Mothers

Feedback from patients about their experience of health care is a critically important step to improving quality of care.  But mechanisms for...

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Understanding quality improvement Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Research brief
Gombe MNH Partnership – Results leaflet in English

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Intervention coverage Research findings
Research brief
Gombe MNH Partnership – Results Leaflet in Hausa

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Intervention coverage Research findings
Journal article
Health system redesign for equity in maternal and newborn health must be codesigned, country led, adapted to context and fit for purpose

Joanna Schellenberg and co-authors of this editorial, published in BMJ Global Health, comment on a study published in the same edition of the...

Community-based newborn care Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evidence for policy and practice
Journal article
Are we using the right approach to change newborn care practices in the community?

Changing behaviors is usually a core component of the role of community health workers (CHWs), but little is known about the mechanisms through...

Ethiopia Nigeria Community-based newborn care Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Blog Post
First results from the Gombe State Maternal and Newborn Health Partnership

Together with implementation partners the Society for Family Health, the SAQIP project of PACT Nigeria and Evidence for Action Mamaye, IDEAS has...

Nigeria Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Capacity strengthening Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects Intervention coverage Local data use Research findings Scale-up
Journal article
“Everything is from God but it is always better to get to the hospital on time”

Zelee Hill and her co-authors aimed to identify facilitators and barriers for women to deliver their babies in health facilities in Gombe State,...

Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Journal article
Are health facilities in low-income settings able to provide good quality routine MNCH care?

This paper, authored by Keith Tomlin and others, looks at health facilities in three settings with high maternal mortality to assess their...

Ethiopia India Nigeria Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
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