 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Boniface Sebikali, MD, MPH, Intrah/PRIME II, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 8100, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8100 and Margaret Rabb, IntraHealth International/The PRIME II Project, 1700 Airport Road, Suite 300, CB # 8100, Chapel Hill, NC 2599-8100, 919-966-5636, rrichter@intrahealth.org.
Despite concerted efforts to improve the quality and accessibility of basic health care in Rwanda, use of reproductive health (RH) services remains low. The PRIME II Project is working with the Ministry of Health to improve this situation, providing technical assistance in RH policy and advocacy, service standards, supportive supervision, community participation, and the strengthening of community health insurance plans. To understand the needs, wants and preferences of RH consumers in depth, incorporate their perspectives into improved services, and build partnerships with providers, PRIME has adapted its Consumer-Driven Quality approach for the Rwandan context. The strategy for Rwanda, “Partenariat pour l’amélioration de la qualité” (PAQ), builds on PRIME II supporting institution Save the Children’s Partnership Defined Quality methodology, which links quality assessment and improvement with community mobilization. The PAQ approach is designed to increase awareness of the benefits of using health care services by enhancing community interest and building community ownership of those services. Activities conducted in four pilot sites explored community and health worker definitions of quality services, revealing that community members and providers agree on the majority of clinical and social issues related to quality services. After consolidating these perspectives, teams of community members and providers began to work together at the four sites to implement solutions that will resolve selected problems without any reliance on external financing. This presentation will elaborate on findings about community and provider expectations of quality services, and will report results and lessons learned from an evaluation of the PAQ project.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, 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.