Understanding quality improvement

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

“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

Journal article

What influences women’s choice of place of delivery?

The study published in BMJ Global Health and authored by Nasir Umar and others is based on a discrete choice experiment following a comprehensive...

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings

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