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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

Blog Post
Taking stock – Seven years of IDEAS

A team of about 20 researchers and professional support staff, employed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, set off to find out...

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
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...

Ethiopia Understanding quality improvement Implementation strength Intervention coverage Research findings Scale-up
News
Better measurement for better maternal and newborn health: A new ten million dollar grant for research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

What is IDEAS? IDEAS (Informed DEcisions for ActionS in maternal and newborn health) aims to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies...

General Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement
Report
Changes in maternal and newborn health care in Ethiopia

The aim of this study was to estimate changes in maternal and newborn health care in areas of Ethiopia where implementation projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were operating.

Ethiopia Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Intervention coverage Research findings
News
Accelerating progress in Maternal and Newborn Child Health

How do we scale-up high impact service packages that will accelerate progress in maternal and newborn child health towards the 2030 Sustainable...

Ethiopia Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Understanding quality improvement Capacity strengthening Intervention coverage Local data use
Report
Changes in maternal and newborn health care in Gombe State, Nigeria

Interactions between families and frontline workers – their frequency, quality, and equity – and coverage of interventions for mothers and newborns in Gombe State, Nigeria.

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Implementation projects Intervention coverage Research findings
Blog Post
One house, two doors: Making sure survey numbers represent the people

What a compelling fact! We need facts like this. They help us to understand the health needs of a community and how we should be addressing them....

Nigeria Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Research findings
Blog Post
Measuring content of contacts reveals missed opportunities to deliver quality maternal and newborn health care

Findings have been published in Plos One and the data supporting this analysis are now freely available online. Quality of health care is a big...

General Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Research findings
Journal article
Adding Content to Contacts: Measurement of High Quality Contacts for Maternal and Newborn Health in Ethiopia, North East Nigeria, and Uttar Pradesh, India

Families in high mortality settings need regular contact with high quality health services. This paper presents a method for estimating the population level coverage of high quality contacts.

Ethiopia India Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Intervention coverage
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