Relevance of the Health Extension Program to the current Health Needs and Evolving Demands of Rural Ethiopia: A Mixed-Method Analysis.

Background: Ethiopia has been implementing a health extension program (HEP) to respond to the high maternal and child mortality in rural communities. HEP has brought tremendous contributions to improved access and coverage of primary healthcare in the last 15 years. Despite its attributions, attention to HEP has declined in recent years due to several reasons. This study is designed to explore HEP's relevance to the current healthcare needs of the rural communities. Methods: This study is a nested cross-sectional mixed-method to the overall HEP's evaluation between March and May 2019. Descriptive statistics were used on qualitative and quantitative assessment. A literature review supplemented the assessment. A representative quantitative sample of 11,746 women, men, and young girls; a qualitative sample of 268 key informants from Kebele administrators, HEWs, program people in the health system and focus groups from community leaders, men and women from 185 Kebeles in 62 woredas were selected. A thematic approach was used for qualitative analysis. Results: Rural communities and program managers asserted that HEP's service packages with the existing service delivery modalities were relevant. Eighty-two percent of men and women and 77% of young girls confirmed this relevance. Besides the existing packages, additional curative services for adults and children were recommended with emphasis on the pastoralist community. HEP's service uptake has declined as over 86% of targeted rural communities bypassed HPs due to unavailability of services and capacity problems of HEWs. Conclusion: The current HEP packages with the existing service delivery modalities are still relevant to the rural communities' health needs. However, on-going changes to address the evolving demands of the targeted rural communities are crucial.

Cost effectiveness of community-based and in-patient therapeutic feeding programs to treat severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: This study estimated the cost effectiveness of community-based therapeutic care (CTC) for children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Sidama Zone, Ethiopia compared to facility based therapeutic feeding center (TFC). METHODS: A cost effectiveness analysis comparing costs and outcomes of two treatment programmes was conducted. The societal perspective, which considers costs to all sectors of the society, was employed. Outcomes and health service costs of CTC and TFC were obtained from Save the Children USA (SC/USA) CTC and TFC programme, government health services and UNICEF(in kind supplies) cost estimates of unit costs. Parental costs were estimated through interviewing 306 caretakers. Cost categories were compared and a single cost effectiveness ratio of costs to treat a child with SAM in each program (regardless of outcome) was computed and compared. RESULTS: A total of 328 patient cards/records of children treated in the programs were reviewed; out of which 306 (157 CTC and 149 TFC) were traced back to their households to interview their caretakers. The cure rate in TFC was 95.36% compared to 94.30% in CTC. The death rate in TFC was 0% and in CTC 1.2%. The mean cost per child treated was $284.56 in TFC and $134.88 in CTC. The institutional cost per child treated was $262.62 in TFC and $128.58 in CTC. Out of these institutional costs in TFC 46.6% was personnel cost. In contrast, majority (43.2%) of the institutional costs in CTC went to ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF). The opportunity cost per caretaker in the TFC was $21.01 whereas it was $5.87 in CTC. The result of this study shows that community based CTC was two times more cost effective than TFC. CONCLUSION: CTC was found to be relatively more cost effective than TFC in this setting. This indicates that CTC is a viable approach on just economic grounds in addition to other benefits such improved access, sustainability and appropriateness documented elsewhere. If costs of RUTF can be reduced such as through local production the CTC costs per child can be further reduced as RUTF constitutes the highest cost in these study settings.

Presence and use of legislative guidelines for the distribution of decentralized decision making authority in the jimma zone health system, southwest ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Decentralization ultimately involves the execution of most health care activities at lower levels of the health system. However, when poorly implemented, decentralization can create confusion about roles and responsibilities. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the presence and use of legislative guidelines depicting the distribution of decentralized authority for decision making in the Jimma Zone health system, Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross sectional study employing both qualitative and quantitative methods was undertaken from 16(th) January to 15(th) March 2007 in Jimma Zone. Health managers at relevant departments of the Federal Ministry of Health, Oromia Regional Health Bureau (RHB), Jimma Zonal Health Department, 13 Woreda Health Offices of Jimma Zone and the health centers and health posts in these districts were included in the study. Data was collected using interview guides and self administered structured questionnaires prepared for each level of the health system. Tape-recorded qualitative data was transcribed and analyzed using thematic framework approach while SPSS for windows version 12.0.1 was used to analyze the quantitative data obtained. RESULTS: According to the regional guidelines, ensuring achievement of regional health service targets is the responsibility of the RHB. This was clear to 97 (97.9%) of the health managers included in this study. However, almost equivalent proportion of the respondents, 95 (95.9%) agreed that the FMOH should be responsible for this. Similarly, 71 (73.9%) of the health managers knew that approval of health budgets and efforts for local resource generation is the responsibility of the Woreda Administrative Council while the remaining 27.1% were uncertain or disagreed about this regional direction. Such confusions were observed in almost every functional area. Moreover, legislative guidelines were not available in most of the district health offices and health facilities. CONCLUSION: Legislative guidelines depicting the distribution of decentralized authority in decision making in the health system were prepared at national and regional levels. However, the findings of this study suggested that health managers in the Jimma Zone health system did not appear to have the right perceptions about roles and responsibilities of the various levels. It is, therefore, very important to clarify such confusions along with capacity building efforts to match the changing roles of each level.