Bmc Health Serv Res
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jul 2018
Multicenter StudyAssessment of facility readiness for implementing the WHO/UNICEF standards for improving quality of maternal and newborn care in health facilities - experiences from UNICEF's implementation in three countries of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
There is a global drive to promote facility deliveries but unless coupled with concurrent improvement in care quality, it might not translate into mortality reduction for mothers and babies. The World Health Organization published the new "Standards for improving quality of care for mothers and newborns in health facilities" but these have not been tested in low- and middle-income settings. UNICEF and its partners are taking the advantage provided by the Mother and Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in Bangladesh, Ghana and Tanzania to test these standards to inform country adaptation. This manuscript presents a framework used for assessment of facility quality of care to inform the effect of quality improvement interventions. ⋯ This strategy and framework provides a very useful model for supporting country implementation of the new WHO standards. It will serve as a template around which countries can build quality of care assessment strategies and metrics to inform their health systems on the effect of QI interventions on care processes and outcomes.