To reduce the rate of maternal mortality in the north of Ghana, the Federal Ministry of Health (MOH) is emphasizing maternal life-saving skills (LSS) and post-abortion care (PAC). In the north of Ghana, the MOH has organized Regional Resource Teams (RRTs) to teach LSS/PAC to primary-care providers and to supervise these providers as they practice their new skills. While initial training of RRTs was successful, later assessments suggested that the RRTs’ performance was not up to initial expectations. This presentation will illustrate how the PIA was used to give RRTs what they need to perform well, and will report on the results of the interventions used. With technical assistance from the PRIME II project, important stakeholders, through a series of workshops and meetings, defined the desired performance of RRTs to support providers. Teams defined indicators for the desired performance and designed data-gathering instruments. Data collectors gathered baseline data that showed the actual performance of the RRTs, which was compared to the desired performance defined earlier. The teams uncovered gaps between desired and actual performance especially in the areas of RRTs supervising providers. For each gap found, the teams performed root cause analyses, to see what was causing the gaps. For each cause, the team designed interventions that would ameliorate the cause, and thereby close the performance gaps. Interventions were implemented over the course of several weeks. Follow-up data taken several months after the interventions were implemented indicates a significant improvement in RRT performance.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to: 1. Discuss the application of the PIA to Ghanaian Regional Resource Team members working in maternal life saving skills and post-abortion care. 2. Describe the results of the interventions used.
Keywords: Performance Measures, Family Planning
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: PRIME/TRG
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.