Over the past five years, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MoPHP) have worked together with the World Bank’s International Development Association to prevent the collapse of Yemen’s health system.
More than 70 hospitals have received needed commodities to keep serving communities even during times of intense conflict. Key support provided includes fuel, oxygen, water, medicines, consumables, equipment and training. Now, under the Emergency Human Capital Project (EHCP), key action areas include sustaining support to hospitals and zeroing-in to improve the quality of care that patients receive.
All too often, quality is a matter of life-or-death for patients. Globally, unsafe care is among the 10 leading causes of death and disability. Medical errors related to diagnosis, prescriptions, use of medicines, and unsatisfactory cleaning and hygiene practices are some of the major causes of patient harm.
In high-income countries, estimates suggest one in every 10 patients is harmed while receiving hospital care, and that around half the causes of this harm are preventable. In low- and middle-income countries, like Yemen, the situation in terms of quality and patient safety is much less clear. To improve quality and patient safety in Yemen’s health system, WHO and the MoPHP are moving forward on several fronts, with the World Bank’s support.
A quality tool has been adopted for use in hospitals and primary health care facilities, it has 54 and 50 indicators respectively across nine domains: leadership & management, human resources, health services, IPC, water, sanitation and hygiene, medical supply, health information system, infrastructure, and patient rights and community participation.
A baseline survey of 10 hospitals revealed that they are implementing between 12 and 31 of the indicators in the tool, and an improvement plan is being developed to address these results. In parallel, WHO has trained 58 health workers from 10 governorate hospitals, as well as representatives of partner agencies.
The training covered quality concepts, the quality indicator tool, and performance indicators and how to use them in monitoring, evaluation, and improvement. In the next six months, this training will be rolled out to reach more health workers, to build awareness and improve adherence to quality-of-care practices.
Story: Safia Al-Sarouri/ WHO Yemen
Photo: Safia Al-Sarouri & Omar Nasr/ WHO Yemen
Credits:
WHO