Project News Vol.14

In September, the 7th QHCF Project Joint Meeting was held at the Champasak Provincial Health Office. Representatives from four provinces reported on their activities and discussed the integration and sustainability of efforts related to quality improvement (assessments using quality standards and Continuous Quality Improvement [CQI] activities), patient safety, health insurance, and accounting/hospital finances.

From September 17th–20th, hospitals in each province organized patient safety events in conjunction with Patient Safety Day (September 17). These events leveraged posters and videos on patient safety created in collaboration with short-term experts to raise awareness about patient safety. Additionally, on November 5th, a Patient Safety Symposium was held with participants from the Department of Healthcare and Rehabilitation (DHR), central hospitals in Vientiane, and provincial and district hospitals from four southern provinces. The symposium highlighted patient safety initiatives conducted by provincial hospitals and discussed future activities for district hospitals.

During the symposium, the patient safety guide—including the surgical safety checklist created by the QHCF Project—was distributed to central hospitals and provincial and district hospitals in the four southern provinces.

Furthermore, at the 14th National Health Research Forum (NHRF) held in Vientiane on October 24th–25th, two posters were presented: (1) analysis of incident reports at Salavan Provincial Hospital and (2) analysis of factors promoting or inhibiting the adoption of the surgical safety checklist at hospitals in the four provinces.

Verification activities for health insurance, which are conducted regularly, have been combined with elements of supportive supervision based on project activities.

From late July to early September, the content of the existing health insurance leaflet for users was updated and finalized in collaboration with short-term experts and the National Health Insurance Bureau (NHIB). These materials will be disseminated as posters and roll-up banners across all provinces, including the four southern provinces.

For hospitals with a high proportion of unmet items related to accounting/hospital finances in the 5G1S assessment, on-site supervision activities were conducted in collaboration with the Department of Planning and Finance (DOPF) to identify and address challenges. Subsequently, provincial-level supervision activities were carried out targeting all districts.