Description of Session
Poor quality of health care results in poor health outcomes. Improving and monitoring quality of health care in LMICs presents unique constraints: (i) increasing scale and scope of the health sector, (ii) lack of enforced standards leading to a lack of continuity in scoring and benchmarks across health facilities over time, (iii) delayed and subjective performance feedback, and (iv) poor use of monitoring data and lack of course correction. The Health Network Quality Improvement System (HNQIS) is an electronic tablet-based application created by Population Services International (PSI) and used to improve quality of health services in health care networks and effectively manage and reach health impact at scale. The HNQIS is composed of four modules that support Quality Assurance Officers (QAOs) to (i) plan supportive supervision visits, thanks to a prioritization matrix that takes into account quality scores and patient volume, (ii) assess providers’ quality of health service provision, (iii) improve providers’ quality of care thanks to tailored feedback, and (iv) monitor quality improvement over time. The HNQIS is in sync with the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) and allows Health System Managers (i) to take informed decisions by identifying weaknesses, gaps and priority areas to intervene to improve health service provision, and (i) to better allocate resources where and when they are most needed. Initially launched in Kenya in 2015, HNQIS is now active in 23 countries and more than 30,000 assessments on 13 different Health Areas at more than 8,000 outlets have been conducted with HNQIS. The session aims to provide a hands-on experience of the use of HNQIS between a health provider and a QAO and see in a simulated environment how HNQIS supports improvement of health service provision.
