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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.

News
Sharing the knowledge – improving quality of care in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, Network activities are focused in 48 learning health facilities, selected from seven regions, with the intention that positive learning is diffused to other service providers in the country. Our QCN research aims to examine the performance and achievements of the structural Network as a knowledge sharing...

Ethiopia Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice
Blog Post
How do we measure women’s experience of childbirth care?

When women go to a health facility to deliver, they expect to be looked after – to receive all the clinical care necessary to ensure their safety and the safety of the newborn. Women also expect to be looked after respectfully and be treated with dignity.  Both these dimensions make up the overall quality of care...

Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Research findings

Published content

Journal article
Major gaps in child survival by ethnic group

At the global level, major inequalities are clear and persistent, write Schellenberg and Berhanu, inequalities by wealth, geographical location,...

General Community-based newborn care Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Blog Post
“I felt like I should have delivered at home”

The Northeast of Nigeria has some of the highest rates of maternal and newborn deaths in the world. Drastically reducing this number of...

Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Journal article
Understanding mistreatment during institutional delivery in Northeast Nigeria

There is growing evidence from Nigeria and around the world that women who deliver their babies in health facilities can experience mistreatment....

Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
News
Learning from joint research: Maternal, newborn and child health in Ethiopia

These are just some of the results discussed during a joint MNCH learning conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the 7th of November....

Ethiopia Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Capacity strengthening Context Economics Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects Implementation strength
Past event
LSHTM – EPHI Maternal Newborn and Child Health Learning Conference

The objective of the conference is to synthesize the learning emerging from the joint research efforts in Maternal, Newborn and Child...

Ethiopia Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Capacity strengthening Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Journal article
Stronger diagnostic abilities for common childhood illnesses needed in Ethiopia

This paper published by Theodros Getachew et al in Acta Paediatrica reveals findings from a study which included a survey and observations of the...

Ethiopia Community-based newborn care Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Journal article
‘People have started to deliver in the facility these days’: a qualitative exploration of factors affecting facility delivery in Ethiopia

The findings in this paper, authored by Zelee Hill and others suggest that barriers, which had prevented women in the past from delivering their...

Ethiopia Community-based newborn care Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Blog Post
A new partnership with the University of Lagos

The prototype phase of NHQI was implemented in Lagos between April 2015 and September 2017. To institutionalise gains from the prototype phase,...

Nigeria Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Implementation projects Research findings
Blog Post
Investigating the high rates of C-sections in private hospitals in Delhi, India

Rates of C-sections in India are relatively low overall at around 17% (IIPS, 2016),  but the story is different in the private sector.  Research...

India Understanding quality improvement Research findings
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