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URC/CHS Projects
Research and Evaluation
The Quality Assurance Project
Client: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
 The Quality Assurance Project (QAP) provides comprehensive technical expertise in the design, management, and implementation of quality assurance and workforce development interventions to improve the delivery of child health, maternal health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and infectious disease services in developing and middle-income countries. Supporting USAID's Bureau for Global Health, the project builds on 10 years of experience using modern quality assurance methods to improve healthcare services and outcomes.
QAP supports operations research to advance the field of quality improvement by testing and documenting quality assurance (QA) and human resource management (HRM) approaches in developing country settings, validating new methodologies to improve quality, and assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of QA and HRM interventions in improving the quality and outcomes of care of priority health programs. The project's research program is based on the belief that evidence-based decision-making is essential for solving quality and human resource management problems. Both formal research studies and research undertaken in the context of continuous monitoring and evaluation of country programs contribute to this evidence base.
URC/CHS Services
- Design and management of field operations research studies on priority topics: child survival, infectious diseases, QA interventions and tools, reproductive health and family planning, and safe motherhood (for more information about ongoing research studies and results from completed studies, link to http://www.qaproject.org/operationsresearch.html)
- Conduct seminal studies on quality assurance methods and approaches
- Instrument design
- Data analysis and interpretation
- Cost and cost-effectiveness analysis
- Quality assessments, including facility surveys
- Evaluation of national quality assurance programs
- Technical support to local research teams
- Collaboration with other Cooperating Agencies to share study methods and results and coordinate field research on common areas of interest
- Development of Issue Papers through literature review of topics important to the project's research agenda
- Operation of Field Laboratories in Ecuador, Niger, and Kenya to conduct multiple studies
- Dissemination of study results and methods through project publications, conference presentations, briefings, and peer-reviewed journals
Partners
University Research Co., LLC leads the contractor team that includes:
Geographic Focus
Currently, QAP is conducting operations research in the following countries:
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Africa: Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia
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Asia: Laos and the Philippines
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Latin America and the Caribbean: Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica
Products
The Quality Assurance Project has produced a large number of technical publications covering the results and methodologies used in its operations research studies as well as issue papers related to the project's operations research agenda.
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- Operations Research Results are 10-15 page summary reports of findings and methods of individual QAP operations research studies. Two-page abstracts are also available. Focus areas of QAP operations research reports include accreditation and quality regulation; client satisfaction and participation; improving compliance with standards; cost-effectiveness of QA interventions; improving training and supervision; and quality improvement and redesign. For a complete list of downloadable QAP operations research reports, link to http://www.qaproject.org/pubs/pubsor.html.
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- Issue Papers provide a thorough and engaging overview of the latest in research findings on topics relevant to QAP's work. For a description of the papers available for downloading, link to http://www.qaproject.org/pubs/pubsissuepapers.html
For more information on QAP's Operations Research activities
Visit the Operations Research section of the QAP website at http://qaproject.org/operationsresearch.html.
Or contact:
Bart Burkhalter, PhD
Director of Operations Research
Quality Assurance ProjectCenter for Human Services
University Research Co., LLC
bburkhalter@urc-chs.com
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