Project News

On November 25 and 26, 2022, "Baseline Survey Results Sharing Meeting" was held in Masvingo City, Masvingo Province. A total of 28 participants, including 4 from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, 8 from Central Hospitals, 14 from Provincial Hospitals, and 2 Japanese experts, attended the meeting and had a fruitful discussion on the baseline survey results and the future activities of the project.

Group photo of participants at the baseline survey results sharing meeting
(November 26, 2022)

Summary of the Baseline Survey

The project conducted the following baseline survey to grasp the current status of the target hospitals regarding the provision of healthcare services and hospital's management and administrative systems. By requesting the surveyors to be members of the hospital management team and Quality Assurance Departments / Quality Improvement Team (QAD/QIT) of the target hospitals, the survey aimed to foster awareness and ownership by the parties concerned of the problems and challenges in the current situation. The survey was also positioned as an opportunity to promote "learning from each other" by having the surveyors conduct surveys of other target hospitals.

• Period: June to July 2022
• Targets of the survey: 10 Provincial Health Executives (PHEs), 6 Central Hospitals, and 8 Provincial hospitals
• Main survey topics:
  (1) Basic information on PHEs and their quality management system
  (2) Information on hospital management and service provision
  (3) Experience in quality management of hospital staff
  (4) Client satisfaction at the target hospitals etc.

Survey at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital
(July 13, 2022)

Survey at Gweru Provincial Hospital
(July 19, 2022)

Key Findings from Baseline Survey

The following points were identified as the main findings of the survey and areas to be supported by the Project.

• There are issues in the organizational structure for effective implementation of training and regular monitoring of quality management activities conducted by the PHEs for health care facilities within its jurisdiction area.
• In the target hospitals, there are highly motivated staff who believe that they are actively working to improve the quality of healthcare services even in the circumstances with limited resources.
• In some of the target hospitals, dissemination of 5S activities within the hospital is progressing. On the other hand, many of the target hospitals have challenges in the dissemination and continuation of 5S activities, introduction of QC stories (KAIZEN with QC story), activities of QAD/QIT such as inhouse monitoring, training, etc., reporting system for medical and patient accidents and incidents, number of inhouse trainers and training system, and other issues.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for hospital management and quality management that are common among the target hospitals have not been yet identified and its data collection methods have not been established
• Of the client satisfaction survey at the target hospitals (a number of participants was 1,400), 80-90% of the client were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with services which the hospitals provided. Meanwhile, there was room for improvement in some of the aspects of the services, such as "attitude/ responsiveness of hospital staff," "consideration for the peoples with disabilities," and "waiting time for outpatients", etc.

Surveyor presenting the survey results
(November 25, 2022)

Surveyor presenting results of client satisfactory survey (November 26, 2022)

Priority issues and ideas for their resolution that the parties concerned are considering in response to the survey results

During the meeting, different group discussions were held on the possible and practicable countermeasures for each of Central Hospitals and Provincial Hospitals to address the challenges identified by the survey. Through their discussion, the project also obtained the key ideas for the project's approaches for the target hospitals in the future.

Priority issues raised included "Insufficient leadership of hospital managers, which is required for effective quality management activities", "Lack of awareness, knowledge, and skills of staff regarding the quality improvement of healthcare services", "Need for interprofessional collaboration and involvement of doctors for quality improvement activities" and "Need to strengthen internal monitoring system", etc.

Group discussion (November 26, 2022)

Participant presenting the results of group discussion (November 26, 2022)

Based on the results of the survey and the feedback from the participants during the meeting, we will continue to review the project approaches and activities, hence, we will start full-scale project activities in 2023 along.