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Improvement Collaborative Results Presented at 2008 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care

HCI's pioneering work to scale up quality improvements in health care systems through collaboratives was presented at the 2008 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care. Held this year in Paris, the conference drew more than 2,200 delegates from around the world. Read more.

The Rollback Malaria Partnership (RBM) has designated April 25th as the annual day for organizations worldwide to reaffirm a commitment to rolling back malaria in Africa and throughout the world. In line with the priorities of the President’s Malaria Initiative, The USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI), formerly the Quality Assurance Project (QAP), supports quality improvement activities and research in Africa. Read more.

The World TB Day 2008 theme “I am stopping TB” recognizes that everyone can do something to stop TB, and every person’s action counts. QAP, now the USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI), is assisting high-burden and high-incidence countries to expand quality TB services, increase case detection and expand access to quality treatment. Read more.

To commemorate International Women’s Day in 2008, USAID’s Bureau for Global Health developed a web feature entitled “Women Making a Difference,” compiling profiles about outstanding women who are making a difference in their own countries through work for USAID, its missions, and partner organizations. URC is pleased to join USAID and partners worldwide to bring a spotlight to women from our staff who are playing critical roles in USAID-funded health programs in their countries. Read more.

A First for Nicaragua: Private Sector Organization Certified as “Mother and Baby Friendly”

Since 1991, UNICEF’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has certified more than 15,000 facilities worldwide as compliant with the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.” The USAID HCI Project is proud to have helped the first private sector health organization in Nicaragua to become “mother and baby friendly”. Read more.

QAP/HCI’s Work Implementing Improvement Collaboratives in Developing Countries Presented at 2007 National Forum

The pioneering work that QAP, now the USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project, has conducted to implement improvement collaboratives in developing and middle-income countries was presented at the 2007 National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare Conference sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Read more.

QAP Tools to Adapt Healthcare Innovations Presented at 24th ISQua International Conference

Dr. Jorge Hermida and Lani Marquez, MHS, both of QAP, offered presentations at this year’s conference of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, Inc (ISQua). The theme of ISQua’s 24th International Conference, held September 30 through October 3, 2007, in Boston was Transforming Healthcare in the Electronic Age. The presentations explored how QAP’s work is using methods and tools to effectively facilitate the exchange of ideas and adapt healthcare innovations in low-resource settings. The technical support QAP provided for quality improvement in a range of healthcare services continues under the new USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project, the follow-on to QAP. Read more.

University Research Co., LLC is pleased to announce the publication of The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Health Workforce in Developing Countries, a background paper, funded by the World Health Organization and prepared for The World Health Report 2006—Working together for health.

The document, authored by Linda Tawfik of Management Sciences for Health and Stephen N. Kinoti, of QAP, addresses the influence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the health workforce. It shows the impact of HIV/AIDS on health systems, on morbidity and mortality among staff and on workforce motivation, performance and migration. Policy options for future staff scenarios and potential obstacles are presented, highlighting policies and actions that could improve retention, replacement and replenishment of health workers.

Dr. Harvey Presents at 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Dr. Steven Harvey, QAP Senior Research Advisor, presented a case study on the application of Rapid Diagnostic Tools (RDTs) for malaria in Zambia at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene held November 4-8, 2007 in Philadelphia. Read more.

QAP Participates in American Public Health Association's 135th Annual Meeting

Staff from QAP shared, at the American Public Health Association's (APHA's) 135th Annual Meeting, their perspectives on project experiences linked to the conference theme, "Politics Policy and Public Health." APHA's 2007 meeting was held November 3-7 in Washington, DC. Read more.

Outcomes produced by methods and tools put into place to improve the quality of essential obstetric and neonatal healthcare services in Ecuador and Niger were presented by QAP staff at the international Women Deliver Conference held in London October 18-20, 2007. Read more.

QAP Presents at USAID Best Practices Conference Held in Bangkok

Country teams from Afghanistan, Egypt, and Pakistan gather to present "next steps" action plans and receive feedback. Session facilitated by Thada Bornstein, QAP.

QAP’s Dr. David Nicholas and Ms. Thada Bornstein, MEd, participated in a USAID-sponsored conference in Bangkok that brought together 450 USAID staff and partners from 18 countries throughout the Near East and Asia to review successes and share strategies and lessons learned. The conference entitled “Scaling Up High-Impact Family Planning and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Best Practices: Achieving Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Near East” was held September 3 – 8, 2007. The conference was organized by Pathfinder International’s USAID-funded Extending Service Delivery (ESD) Project. Read more.

Ecuador’s El Comercio Highlights Declining Newborn Mortality Rates at Hospitals Participating in Quality Improvement

Dramatic reductions in newborn deaths at hospitals participating in a collaborative implemented by the Ministry of Health of Ecuador with technical assistance from QAP are beginning to draw attention from the national press. El Comercio, Ecuador’s main newspaper, has reported on a sharp decline in newborn mortality rates and attributed the decline to implementation of quality improvement (QI) methods. Read more.

WHO Bulletin Publishes Results of QAP Skilled Birth Attendant Study

The Bulletin of the World Health Organization selected the article, “Are skilled birth attendants really skilled? A measurement method, some disturbing results and a potential way forward,” for inclusion in its special Maternal Health theme issue published this month to coincide with the Women Deliver Conference held in London October 18-20. The article was written by Steven A Harvey (QAP), Yudy Carla Wong Blandón (QAP/Nicaragua), Affette McCaw-Binns (University of the West Indies), Ivette Sandino (UNICEF/Nicaragua), Luis Urbina, César Rodríguez, Ivonne Gómez (all of QAP/Nicaragua), Patricio Ayabaca (QAP/Ecuador), Sabou Djibrina (UNICEF/Nicaragua), and the Nicaraguan maternal and neonatal health quality improvement group.

Although delivery by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) serves as an indicator of progress towards reducing maternal mortality worldwide and is tracked by the World Health Organization and other agencies, little is known about the competence of SBAs to manage common, life-threatening obstetric complications. The article describes research conducted by QAP to assess SBA competence in five high maternal mortality settings as a basis for initiating quality improvement activities. Under the first phase of the QAP study, 166 SBAs were tested in Benin, Ecuador, Jamaica and Rwanda. In the second phase, the earlier results were used to refine the research instruments and conduct a subsequent evaluation of 1,358 SBAs throughout Nicaragua.

The study concluded that a wide gap exists between current evidence-based standards and provider competence to manage selected obstetric and neonatal complications. In the article, the authors discuss the significance of that gap, suggest approaches to close it and describe efforts to do so currently underway in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Niger.

The article can be accessed online at http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/10/en/index.html.
For more information on QAP’s research on SBA competency, please contact Dr. Steven Harvey at sharvey@urc-chs.com.

QAP Supports Hurricane Felix Relief

In the aftermath of Hurricane Felix, QAP requested and received approval from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to participate in the humanitarian response to the disaster in Nicaragua. During relief efforts, QAP provided much needed health systems expertise in a rapid assessment of the storm’s effects in the country’s Atlantic North Autonomous Region (Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte ((RAAN)). Since 2005, QAP has been providing technical support in Nicaragua focused on improving care for severely ill and malnourished children and improving the quality of essential obstetric and newborn care. Read more.

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