Better Health Services (BHS) Related News

With support from the USAID Better Health Services Project (BHS) implemented by URC in Cambodia, the Preventive Medicine Department of the Ministry of Health and its partners are collaborating to expand the availability of cervical cancer screening to the general population.

After a year of operation, the new computerized patient registration system at Siem Reap Provincial Hospital has registered over 15,000 patients and met with the approval of the Ministry of Health (MOH).The system was introduced at the hospital in November 2011 by the MOH, with support from the USAID Better Health Services project implemented by University Research Co., LLC (URC).

Cambodian health care workers’ use of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Book is resulting in significant improvements in the quality of maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition services and counseling at health centers. This key finding emerged from follow-up conducted by operational district health staff and the USAID Better Health Services project implemented by University Research Co. LLC (URC). The follow-up coaching and assessment found that midwives and nurses were using the MCH book routinely to provide better quality maternal, newborn, and young child health and nutrition care.

On May 16, at the request of the Government of Vietnam, URC staff from Cambodia presented at the 6th National Conference on Information Technology for Health in Vietnam. Dr. Mean Reatanak Sambath, the Monitoring and Evaluation and Health Informatics Program Leader for the Better Health Services (BHS) Project implemented by URC in Cambodia, had been invited by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health to share the innovation and achievements of the Cambodian Health Management Information System (HMIS), which has improved the availability and use of health data in the country. The HMIS contains service delivery data from all health facilities in Cambodia, such as the number of antenatal care visits, number of family planning client visits, and number of cases of infectious diseases.

Maternal mortality ratios are declining worldwide, including in Cambodia, where long-held home birth practices are finally giving way to facility births. URC Cambodia-based staff Jerker Liljestrand and Mean Reatanak Sambath explore the reasons for rising facility births and falling maternal mortality and recommend continuing improvement in an article in the June 12 issue of Reproductive Health Matters.

With technical assistance by URC’s Better Health Services (BHS) project, the Cambodian Ministry of Health (MOH) has begun rolling out programs to treat malnutrition.  In Cambodia, 44% of children below the age of five years chronically malnourished, 28% are underweight, and 8% are acutely malnourished.  Twenty percent of women are chronically energy deficient (thin), and 44% of reproductive age women and 57% of pregnant women are anemic.  

Innovative learning methodologies introduced by URC’s Better Health Services (BHS) project in Cambodia are reviving health care workers’ interest in continuing medical education (CME). As BHS introduces team-based learning (TBL) in select hospitals, hospital staff are providing positive feedback about this participatory methodology, an important change from the customary, lecture-based approaches to learning used to date in Cambodia.

A 2011 survey by URC’s Better Health Services (BHS) project in 16 hospitals and a health center has found significant improvements in the quality of maternal and newborn care. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding the five-year BHS project to work with the Ministry of Health and other partners in five USAID-supported provinces to increase demand for and equitable access to quality health services. Systematic implementation of correct, evidence-based, and timely diagnosis and treatment is still a problem, but many indicators of quality care are improving. Project goals recognize that Cambodian women need skilled care at delivery and that providers must be able to 1) provide high-quality care for normal births and 2) identify and respond quickly and effectively to complications.

The Cambodia Better Health Services (BHS) project have produced a new film and accompanying learning materials to train midwives in Cambodia in proper delivery practices and care. The film, called “A Safe Delivery,” covers topics such as preventing infection, good delivery and immediate post-delivery practices, communicating with mothers and families, and postpartum and newborn care.

With assistance from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Better Health Services (BHS) Project sent four Cambodians to the 6th annual OpenMRS (Open Medical Record System) Annual Implementer's Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in mid-October. The session significantly advanced BHS efforts to strengthen a critical piece of Cambodia’s health system. Managed by URC and funded by USAID, BHS is building the capacity of public and private health service delivery systems; expanding models for health financing; improving the quality and impact of maternal, neonatal, and child health services; and strengthening the control of infectious diseases.

Today, Cambodia’s Department of Planning and Health Information (DPHI) of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Better Health Services Project (BHS) officially launched the national Health Management Information System (HMIS) database: www.hiscambodia.org. The web-based database collects and stores health information from health facilities at all health system levels nationwide, facilitating effective public health programming and responsive health policies.

The USAID Better Health Services (BHS) project in close collaboration with the Cambodia University of Health Sciences and Ministry of Health held a regional workshop providing continuing medical education (CME) to over 150 health professionals from eight provinces in Cambodia from August 31 through September 2.  Participants included doctors, medical assistants, senior nurses, midwives, and lab staff.  There have been twelve regional workshops held so far. This workshop was the fifth that BHS has supported. 

URC’s Better Health Services (BHS) project has helped to improve a patient referral system in Cambodia so that women with a complicated delivery get to a hospital and that midwives receive payment for their work.

This week, the United Nations Population Fund is urging organizations to mark World Population Day, which raises awareness about the needs of our growing global population.  Later this year, the world population is projected to reach seven billion.

Since 1980, University Research Co., LLC (URC) has supported countries in developing successful and sustainable family planning programs and helped make gains in reproductive health, one of our six areas of expertise. URC’s projects in Cambodia and Guatemala provide examples of our ongoing efforts to support healthy populations.

URC’s Better Health Services (BHS) project, which works with the Cambodian Ministry of Health to increase demand for and equitable access to quality health services, provided support to the Cambodian delegation to the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on Health Information Systems (HIS). Health Information Systems are the mechanism for collecting and disseminating health data from health facilities around the country and are critical for monitoring health services and health indicators and for strategic planning and decision-making.

As part of a national campaign to improve infection control and strengthen patient safety, Cambodia organized the first National Hand Hygiene Day on June 16, 2011.  The day focused on the importance of hand hygiene in medical care.  Hand washing is frequently a low priority for health providers, but can significantly lower the rates of hospital-acquired infections.