 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Carlos Brambila, PhD, Mexico Office, Population Council, Panzacola 62, Col. Villa Coyoacán, Mexico City, 04000, Mexico, (52) (55) 5999-8630, cbrambila@popcouncil.org.mx, Felipe Lopez, Dr, Formerly: Guatemala Office, Population Council, 8a Calle 14-44, Zona 13, Guatemala City, 01013, Guatemala, and Julio Garcia Colindres, Dr, Reproductive Health Program, Ministry of Health, Guatemala, 4a Ave. 14-75, Col El Campo, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
The main proposal of this study is that a strategic set of incremental interventions put in place in an organized and systematic way can make a significant contribution to large scale programmatic change in a complex organizational setting. The goal of this study was to have a demonstrable positive impact on key program areas that previous studies identified as problematic in Guatemala’s public health system. The key program areas include: (1) foster positive attitudes among health workers towards reproductive health service provision; (2) make patient flow more effective; (3) provide integrated reproductive health services; (4) reduce medical barriers to family planning service delivery. The intervention was tested using a quasi-experimental design with before and after measurements and one control group. Results show that the intervention was highly effective compared to the control, particularly given the challenging context Guatemala presents. The number of unnecessary contacts was reduced by 13 percent. Clients’ waiting time was reduced by 11 per cent which made the client-provider interaction time more efficient at intervention sites as compared to control sites. An analysis of the completeness of reproductive health services received by clients demonstrates that intervention sites almost doubled the number of relevant services provided to clients. The proportion of women who received family planning information increased from 8% to 19% in intervention districts as compared to no change observed among control districts. Intervention results provided the groundwork to operationalize the recently established National Reproductive Health Program in Guatemala.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Reproductive Health, Quality of Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.