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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
Why are C-section rates in private Indian health facilities unreasonably high? The providers’ view

Although the overall rate of caesarean deliveries in India remains low, rates are higher in private than in public facilities. In a household...

India Understanding quality improvement Context Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
News
Celebrating 8 years of IDEAS

Just a few weeks before this exciting milestone the IDEAS team from London, Ethiopia and Nigeria came together for a team retreat to hear from...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement
News
IDEAS at #HSR2018

New evidence presented as posters (above) included: Sustainability for a Village Health Worker scheme in Nigeria Availability of routine facility...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria 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
News
A successful project – or just good timing? Measuring interventions and their impact on health outcomes

Attributing changes in health outcomes to specific interventions or projects is tricky. Oftentimes coincidental factors, such as the construction...

Ethiopia General Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Implementation projects
News
Improved health systems could prevent over 8 million deaths each year in low- and middle-income countries

Beyond this terrible human cost, poor quality health systems represented enormous economic losses to countries due to lost productivity each year....

General Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Research findings
Journal article
Early postnatal home visits: a qualitative study of barriers and facilitators to achieving high coverage

A paper co-authored by Yared Amare, Pauline Scheelbeek and IDEAS team members Zelee Hill, Joanna Schellenberg, and Della Berhanu and published in...

Ethiopia General Understanding quality improvement Context Intervention coverage Research findings
Blog Post
What motivates you? Understanding what makes health care workers motivated to provide quality care for mothers and newborns in Ethiopia

We are taking a mixed methods approach, conducting baseline and endline quantitative surveys supplemented by qualitative work halfway through the...

Ethiopia Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Economics Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
News
IDEAS Summer Seminar Series

More than seven years later, the team is building on the wealth of data, results, partnerships and learning created in the current second phase of...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Research findings
Journal article
The effect of implementation strength of basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) on facility deliveries and the met need for BEmONC at the primary health care level in Ethiopia

Tailored support, including BEmONC training to providers, mentoring and monitoring through supportive supervision, provision of equipment...

Ethiopia General Community-based newborn care Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
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