Project News

5S-KAIZEN-TQM Operational Guide Revision Workshop was held in Kadoma, Mashonaland West from the 22nd to 25th of May 2023. A total of 16 participants from the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC), Provincial Health Executives, target hospitals and Cordaid (a Dutch international NGO), finalized a draft revision of the operational guide for 5S-KAIZEN-TQM Approach in Zimbabwe.

The guide will mainly be used in the following settings:

1. Quality improvement training at the national level
2. Across all the functions and programmes of the ministry
3. In-house capacity building sessions on quality improvement at the health facility level (e.g., management training, continuing professional education, newcomer orientation, refresher training, etc.).

The Directorate of Quality Assurance and Patient Safety of MOHCC raised specific requests in advance, such as making the content useful for hospital staff who practice 5S-KAIZEN activities. To meet these requests, a draft version was prepared mainly by Japanese experts before the workshop.

On the day of the workshop, participants were divided into four groups and each group was assigned a section of the revised version. Each group checked whether the content of the section is easy to understand for expected users of the guide and also whether it is consistent with the current situation of quality improvement initiatives and hospital in Zimbabwe. Afterwards, the revised sections were shared with the other groups, and a final draft was developed based on the opinions of all the groups.

The final draft will be completed after the overall proofreading and will be distributed to each of the target hospitals after the guide has been officially approved by MOHCC.

Project director giving opening remarks

Expert Suzuki explaining how this workshop will proceed

Group work

Group work

Medical Superintendent of Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital, presenting the main points revised in the group work

Discussion among participants after the presentation