THE QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT: INTRODUCING QUALITY IMPROVEMENT TO PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Persistently excessive morbidity and mortality rates in less developed countries (LDCs) served by primary health care systems suggest that the quality of services is inadequate. The PRICOR project, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, has designed and implemented meth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quality assurance in health care 1991-01, Vol.3 (3), p.147-165
Main Authors: Nicholas, David D., Heiby, James R., Hatzell, Theresa A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Child
Child Nutrition Disorders - therapy
Child Welfare
Developing Countries
Diarrhea - therapy
Humans
Immunization
Malaria - therapy
Population
Primary Health Care - standards
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Respiratory Tract Infections - therapy
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Summary:Persistently excessive morbidity and mortality rates in less developed countries (LDCs) served by primary health care systems suggest that the quality of services is inadequate. The PRICOR project, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, has designed and implemented methods for quality assessment and problem solving in LDC health systems. After developing comprehensive lists of essential activities and tasks, similar to practice parameters, for seven child survival interventions, PRICOR supported comprehensive quality assessment studies in twelve LDC countries. The studies, yielding over 6000 observations of health worker—client encounters, indicated highly prevalent, serious program deficiencies in areas including diagnosis, treatment, patient education and supervision. To facilitate corrective action, PRICOR assisted managers in conducting operations research to resolve priority problems revealed by the assessments. The recently initiated Quality Assurance Project is building on PRICOR techniques in designing and implementing sustainable continuous quality improvement programs for LDC health systems.
ISSN:1040-6166