Quality improvement efforts by the USAID Health Services Quality Accelerator Activity are beginning to have a national impact in Jordan.
The Activity – implemented by URC – has helped the Jordan Ministry of Health (MOH) and Royal Medical Services (RMS) implement Quality Assurance and Patient Safety (QAPS) teams at 130 primary health care facilities and 20 hospitals. These teams address challenges facing reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) services by devising solutions, measuring progress by gathering data, and adapting solutions as needed.
Together, QAPs teams have implemented more than 400 point-of-care quality improvement (POCQI) initiatives to enhance RMNCH services. Of these POCQI initiatives, 194 have focused on reproductive and maternal health, 88 on child health, and 21 on neonatal services.
These initiatives aligned with and further strengthened the provision of integrated RMNCH services by building the capacity of service providers and helping to improve the patient experience by reducing waiting times, improving client flow in health centers, and other metrics.
Governance Changes Support Sustainability of Quality Care
To strengthen and sustain these initiatives, the Activity revitalized Health Directorate Quality Councils and supported the establishment of Central Quality Councils at the MOH and RMS.
With this critical quality governance framework in place, the MOH issued a policy directive in July that will form QAPS teams in all 470 MOH health facilities across Jordan, with a requirement to implement at least one POCQI initiative each year. Of these facilities, 439 are health centers and 31 are hospitals.
“This policy commitment from the MOH represents a significant advancement in sustaining continuous quality improvement in the health system,” said Issam El-Adawi, the Activity’s Chief of Party.
