Unpacking the black box of improvement.

During the Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565-'Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?', participants discussed the need to unpack the 'black box' of improvement. The 'black box' refers to the fact that when quality improvement interventions are described or evaluated, there is a tendency to assume a simple, linear path between the intervention and the outcomes it yields. It is also assumed that it is enough to evaluate the results without understanding the process of by which the improvement took place. However, quality improvement interventions are complex, nonlinear and evolve in response to local settings. To accurately assess the effectiveness of quality improvement and disseminate the learning, there must be a greater understanding of the complexity of quality improvement work. To remain consistent with the language used in Salzburg, we refer to this as 'unpacking the black box' of improvement. To illustrate the complexity of improvement, this article introduces four quality improvement case studies. In unpacking the black box, we present and demonstrate how Cynefin framework from complexity theory can be used to categorize and evaluate quality improvement interventions. Many quality improvement projects are implemented in complex contexts, necessitating an approach defined as 'probe-sense-respond'. In this approach, teams experiment, learn and adapt their changes to their local setting. Quality improvement professionals intuitively use the probe-sense-respond approach in their work but document and evaluate their projects using language for 'simple' or 'complicated' contexts, rather than the 'complex' contexts in which they work. As a result, evaluations tend to ask 'How can we attribute outcomes to the intervention?', rather than 'What were the adaptations that took place?'. By unpacking the black box of improvement, improvers can more accurately document and describe their interventions, allowing evaluators to ask the right questions and more adequately evaluate quality improvement interventions.

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention for obstetric and neonatal care in selected public health facilities across six states of India.

BACKGROUND: While increase in the number of women delivering in health facilities has been rapid, the quality of obstetric and neonatal care continues to be poor in India, contributing to high maternal and neonatal mortality. METHODS: The USAID ASSIST Project supported health workers in 125 public health facilities (delivering approximately 180,000 babies per year) across six states to use quality improvement (QI) approaches to provide better care to women and babies before, during and immediately after delivery. As part of this intervention, each month, health workers recorded data related to nine elements of routine care alongside data on perinatal mortality. We aggregated facility level data and conducted segmented regression to analyse the effect of the intervention over time. RESULTS: Care improved to 90-99% significantly (p < 0.001) for eight of the nine process elements. A significant (p < 0.001) positive change of 30-70% points was observed during post intervention for all the indicators and 3-17% points month-to-month progress shown from the segmented results. Perinatal mortality declined from 26.7 to 22.9 deaths/1000 live births (p < 0.01) over time, however, it is not clear that the intervention had any significant effect on it. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the effectiveness of QI approaches in improving provision of routine care, yet these approaches are underused in the Indian health system. We discuss the implications of this for policy makers.

National learning systems to sustain and scale up delivery of quality healthcare: a conceptual framework.

All around the world, health systems fail to provide good quality of care (QoC). By developing learning systems, health systems are able to better identify good practices and to explain how to sustain and scale these good practices. To facilitate the operationalisation of national learning systems, the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (the Network) developed a conceptual framework for national learning systems to support QoC at scale. The Network facilitated an iterative process to reach consensus on a conceptual framework for national learning systems to sustain and scale up delivery of quality healthcare. Following a landscape analysis, the Network Secretariat and WHO convened two consultative meetings with country partners, technical experts and stakeholders. Based on these inputs, we developed a conceptual framework for national learning systems to support QoC at scale. National learning systems use a variety of approaches to identify practices that have improved QoC at the patient and provider levels. They also facilitate scale up and sustain strategies used successfully to support quality improvement. Despite growing consensus on the importance of learning for QoC, no one has yet detailed how this learning should be operationalised nationally. Our conceptual framework is the first to facilitate the operationalisation of national learning systems so that health systems can begin to develop, adapt and implement mechanisms to learn about what works or fails and to scale up and sustain this learning for QoC.

Supplementing hand washing with proper use of alcoholic hand rub in a special neonatal care unit in a large academic public health institute at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to increase use of alcoholic hand rub (AHR) in specialised newborn care unit (SNCU) to improve hand hygiene in order to reduce neonatal sepsis and mortality at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College and Hospital, Jabalpur. DESIGN: A prospective interventional and observational study. METHODOLOGY: We formed a quality improvement (QI) team in our SNCU consisting of doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff and parents (a floating member) to improve proper use of AHR. To identify the barriers to the problem, we used fishbone analysis tool. The barriers which were not allowing the health providers to use AHR properly identified were amount of AHR in millilitres to be used per day per baby, how much and when the amount of AHR to be indented from the main store and what is the proper site to place the bottle. We used plan-do-study-act cycles to test and adapt solutions to these problems. Within 5-6 weeks of starting our project, AHR use increased from 44 mL to 92 mL per baby per day and this is sustained around 100 mL per baby per day for over 2 years now. RESULTS: Significant decrease in neonatal mortality was observed (reduced from median of 41.0 between August 2016 and April 2018 to 24.0 between May 2018 and December 2019). The neonates discharged alive improved from 41.2 to 52.3 as a median percentage value. The percentage of babies who were referred out and went Left Against Medical Advice (LAMA) deceased too. CONCLUSION: Multiple factors can lead to neonatal deaths, but the important factors are always contextual to facilities. QI methodology provides health workers with the skills to identify the major factors contributing to mortality and develop strategies to deal with them. Improving processes of care can lead to improved hand hygiene and saves lives.

Development of a framework of intervention strategies for point of care quality improvement at different levels of healthcare delivery system in India: initial lessons.

BACKGROUND: Inadequate quality of care has been identified as one of the most significant challenges to achieving universal health coverage in low-income and middle-income countries. To address this WHO-SEARO, the point of care quality improvement (POCQI) method has been developed. This paper describes developing a dynamic framework for the implementation of POCQI across India from 2015 to 2020. METHODS: A total of 10 intervention strategies were designed as per the needs of the local health settings. These strategies were implemented across 10 states of India, using a modification of the 'translating research in practice' framework. Healthcare professionals and administrators were trained in POCQI using a combination of onsite and online training methods followed by coaching and mentoring support. The implementation strategy changed to a fully digital community of practice platform during the active phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dashboard process, outcome indicators and crude cost of implementation were collected and analysed across the implementation sites. RESULTS: Three implementation frameworks were evolved over the study period. The combined population benefitting from these interventions was 103 million. A pool of QI teams from 131 facilities successfully undertook 165 QI projects supported by a pool of 240 mentors over the study period. A total of 21 QI resources and 6 publications in peer-reviewed journals were also developed. The average cost of implementing POCQI initiatives for a target population of one million was US$ 3219. A total of 100 online activities were conducted over 6 months by the digital community of practice. The framework has recently extended digitally across the South-East Asian region. CONCLUSION: The development of an implementation framework for POCQI is an essential requirement for the initiative's successful country-wide scale. The implementation plan should be flexible to the healthcare system's needs, target population and the implementing agency's capacity and amenable to multiple iterative changes.

Combining bottleneck analysis and quality improvement as a novel methodology to improve the quality of neonatal care in a northeastern state of India: a feasibility study.

Background: The State of Meghalaya, India, has some of the worst newborn health outcomes in the country. State health authorities commissioned an assessment of newborn service delivery to improve services. This study proposes bottleneck analysis (BNA) and quality improvement (QI) methods as a combined method to improve compliance with evidence-based neonatal interventions in newborn health facilities. Methods: An adapted Every Newborn BNA tool was applied to collect data on barriers to providing quality care in five district hospitals. Subsequently, health workers were coached to use QI methodology to overcome identified bottlenecks. Data from QI projects were analysed using run charts. Results: BNA revealed that interventions directed toward basic newborn care and special newborn care facilities needed attention. Facilities that undertook QI projects showed an improvement in neonates having early initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, from 64% to a peak of 94% in one facility and from 75% to 91% in another. Skin-to-skin contact increased from 49% to a peak of 78% and is sustained at 58%. Improved performance has been sustained in some facilities. Conclusions: The combination of BNA and QI is a successful method for identifying and overcoming bottlenecks in newborn care in resource-limited settings.

Reducing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Using Quality Improvement Approaches.

Over half of mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) occurs postdelivery. Keeping mother-infant pairs in care remains challenging. Health workers in 3 countries used quality improvement (QI) approaches to improve data systems, mother-infant retention, and facility-based care delivery. The number and proportion of infants with known HIV status at time of discharge from early infant diagnosis programs increased in Tanzania and Uganda. We analyzed data using statistical process control charts. Mother-to-child HIV transmission did not decrease in 15 Kenyan sites, decreased from 12.7% to 3.8% in 28 Tanzanian sites, and decreased from 17.2% to 1.5% in 10 Ugandan sites with baseline data. This improvement is likely due to the combination of option B+, service delivery improvements, and retention through QI approaches. Reaching the global MTCT elimination target and maximizing infant survival will require health systems to support mother-infant pairs to remain in care and support health workers to deliver care. Quality improvement approaches can support these changes.

Applying Quality Improvement Approaches to Reduce Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission and Improve Health and Nutrition Care in Five Countries: Lessons from the Partnership for HIV-Free Survival.

The World Health Organization guidelines for treating pregnant HIV-positive women and preventing HIV transmission to infants now recommend lifelong antiretroviral treatment for pregnant and breastfeeding women. We applied quality improvement (QI) methods to support governments and facility staff to address service gaps in 5 countries under the Partnership for HIV-Free Survival (PHFS). We used 3 key strategies: break the complex problem of improving HIV-free survival into more easily implementable phases, support a national management team to oversee the project, and support facility-level staff to learn and apply QI methods to reducing mother-to-child transmission. The key results in each country were increases in data completeness and accuracy, increases in retention in care of mother-baby pairs (MBPs), increase in coverage of MBPs with appropriate services, and reduction in vertical transmission of HIV. The PHFS experience offers a model that other multicountry networks can adopt to improve service delivery and quality of care.

Quality Improvement Approaches Associated with Quality of Childbirth Care Practices in Six Indian States.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the impact of quality improvement (QI) approaches and other health system factors (level of health facility, cadre of staff conducting the delivery, years of experience of staff conducting the delivery, and time of day) on the quality of six elements of delivery and postpartum/postnatal care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using external observers. SETTING: 12 public health facilities in 6 states in India during November 2014. PARTICIPANTS/PATIENTS: 461 deliveries in above facilities. INTERVENTION: Facilities were chosen based on having received one day of QI training and at least six monthly QI coaching visits. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): (i) Administration of oxytocin within one minute following delivery, (ii) immediate drying and wrapping of the newborn, (iii) use of sterile cord clamps, (iv) breastfeeding within one hour of birth, (v) mothers' condition assessed between 0 and 30 minute after delivery, and (vi) vitamin K given to infants within 6 hour of birth. RESULTS: On multivariate analysis, facilities using QI approaches with deliberate aims to address the processes of interest were more likely to dry and wrap infants (OR 2.6, 95% CI: 2.1, 6.6), initiate early breastfeeding (OR 3.6, 95% CI: 2.1, 6.2) and conduct post-partum vitals monitoring (OR 2.7, 95% CI: 1.7, 4.2). The other health system factors had mixed effects. CONCLUSIONS: Facilities using QI approaches to ensure all women and babies receive specific elements of care provide that element of care to a greater proportion than facilities not using QI approaches for that element of care.

Experiences of Indian Health Workers Using WhatsApp for Improving Aseptic Practices With Newborns: Exploratory Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Quality improvement (QI) involves the following 4 steps: (1) forming a team to work on a specific aim, (2) analyzing the reasons for current underperformance, (3) developing changes that could improve care and testing these changes using plan-do-study-act cycles (PDSA), and (4) implementing successful interventions to sustain improvements. Teamwork and group discussion are key for effective QI, but convening in-person meetings with all staff can be challenging due to workload and shift changes. Mobile technologies can support communication within a team when face-to-face meetings are not possible. WhatsApp, a mobile messaging platform, was implemented as a communication tool by a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team in an Indian tertiary hospital seeking to reduce nosocomial infections in newborns. OBJECTIVE: This exploratory qualitative study aimed to examine experiences with WhatsApp as a communication tool among improvement team members and an external coach to improve adherence to aseptic protocols. METHODS: Ten QI team members and the external coach were interviewed on communication processes and approaches and thematically analyzed. The WhatsApp transcript for the implementation period was also included in the analysis. RESULTS: WhatsApp was effective for disseminating information, including guidance on QI and clinical practice, and data on performance indicators. It was not effective as a platform for group discussion to generate change ideas or analyze the performance indicator data. The decision of who to include in the WhatsApp group and how members engaged in the group may have reinforced existing hierarchies. Using WhatsApp created a work environment in which members were accessible all the time, breaking down barriers between personal and professional time. The continual influx of messages was distracting to some respondents, and how respondents managed these messages (eg, using the silent function) may have influenced their perceptions of WhatsApp. The coach used WhatsApp to share information, schedule site visits, and prompt action on behalf of the team. CONCLUSIONS: WhatsApp is a productive communication tool that can be used by teams and coaches to disseminate information and prompt action to improve the quality of care, but cannot replace in-person meetings.

Improving postpartum care in a large hospital in New Delhi, India.

Despite recent progress, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in India remains high at 174 per 100 000 live births. Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital (BMH) is a secondary level hospital in New Delhi. In 2013, five women died in BMH's postpartum ward. In January 2014, a United States Agency for International Development-funded team met with BMH staff to help improve their system for providing postpartum care to prevent maternal deaths. The hospital staff formed a quality improvement (QI) team and, between January and December 2014, collected data, conducted root cause analyses to understand why postpartum women were dying and tested and adapted small-scale changes using plan-do-study-act cycles to delivery safer postpartum care. Changes included reorganising the ward to reduce the time it took nurses to assess women and educating women and their relatives about common danger signs. The changes led to an increase in the number of women who were identified with complications from two out of 1667 deliveries (0.12%) between January and May 2014 to 74 out of 3336 deliveries (2.2%) between July and December 2014. There were no deaths on the postpartum ward in 2014 compared with five deaths in 2013 but the reduction was not sustained after the hospital started accepting sick patients from other hospitals in 2015. QI approaches can improve the efficiency of care and contribute to improved outcomes. Additional strategies are required to sustain improvements.

Managing hundreds of improvement teams.

Recognizing the notable scale of USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project activities and sizable number of improvement teams, which in some cases is close to 1,000 improvement teams managed in one country at a point in time, we sought to answer the questions: How do we manage hundreds of improvement teams in one country alone? How do we manage more than 4,000 improvement teams globally? The leaders of our improvement programs manage such efforts as though they are second-nature, without pointing to the specific skills and strategies needed to manage thousands of teams. This paper was developed to capture the lessons, considerations, and insights shared in discussions with leaders on the USAID ASSIST Project, including country Chiefs of Party and Regional Directors. More specifically, this paper seeks to describe what is involved in scaling up and managing large numbers of improvement teams. Through focus group discussions and individual interviews, participants discussed the key skills, strategies, and lessons needed to successfully manage large numbers of teams on the USAID ASSIST Project. We concluded that the six key components in managing large numbers of teams are 1) leadership; 2) management structures and capacities; 3) clear and open communication; 4) shared learning, collaboration, and support; 5) ownership, engagement, and empowerment; and 6) partnerships. We further analyzed these six components as being interrelated to one another based on the relationship between culture, strategy, and technique in implementing quality improvement activities.

Reducing hypothermia in newborns admitted to a neonatal care unit in a large academic hospital in New Delhi, India.

Neonatal hypothermia is a common and dangerous condition around the world. 70% of neonates born in Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital in New Delhi, India, and subsequently admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) had a temperature below 36.5°C on admission. In July 2016, we formed a team of staff from the labour room, NICU and auxiliary staff to reduce hypothermia in babies transported to our NICU using quality improvement methods. We identified problems related to staff awareness of hypothermia and its dangers, environmental factors and supply issues in the labour room, and challenges with rapidly and safely transferring sick newborns to the NICU. We used the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to test and adapt solutions to these problems. Because infection is a common complication of hypothermia, we also instituted a training programme to improve handwashing skills among parents and health workers. Within 9 months of starting our quality improvement project, the proportion of neonates who were normothermic on admission increased from 27% to 75%, the number of cases of late-onset neonatal sepsis decreased from 15.2 to 5 cases/1000 patient days, and all-cause mortality fell from 4.2 to 2.6 neonatal deaths per week. Multiple factors can lead to neonatal hypothermia, and the most important factors will differ from facility to facility. Quality improvement methods provide health workers with the skills to identify the key factors contributing to hypothermia in their facility and to develop strategies to address them. Addressing processes of care can lead to improved thermal care and save lives.

The Mixed Nature of Incentives for Community Health Workers: Lessons from a Qualitative Study in Two Districts in India.

Incentives play an important role in motivating community health workers (CHWs). In India, accredited social health activists (ASHAs) are female CHWs who provide a range of services, including those specific to reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 49 ASHAs and one of their family members (husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, or son) from Gurdaspur and Mewat districts to explore the role of family, community, and health system in supporting ASHAs in their work. Thematic analysis revealed that incentives were both empowering and a source of distress for ASHAs and their families. Earning income and contributing to the household's financial wellbeing inspired a sense of financial independence and self-confidence for ASHAs, especially with respect to relations with their husbands and parents-in-law. In spite of the empowering effects of the incentives, they were a cause of distress. Low incentive rates relative to the level of effort required to complete ASHA responsibilities, compounded by irregular and incomplete payment, put pressure on families. ASHAs dedicated much of their time and own resources to perform their duties, drawing them away from their household responsibilities. Communication around incentives from supervisors may have led ASHAs to prioritize and promote those services that yielded higher incentives, as opposed to focusing on the most appropriate services for the client. ASHAs and their families maintained hope that their positions would eventually bring in a regular salary, which contributed to retention of ASHAs. Incentives, therefore, are both motivating and inspiring as well as a cause dissatisfaction among ASHAs and their families. Recommendations include revising the incentive scheme to be responsive to the time and effort required to complete tasks and the out-of-pocket costs incurred while working as an ASHA; improve communication to ASHAs on incentives and responsibilities; and ensure timely and complete payment of incentives to ASHAs. The findings from this study contribute to the existing literature on incentivized CHW programs and help throw added light on the role incentives play in family dynamics which affects performance of CHW.

Improving care for patients on antiretroviral therapy through a gap analysis framework.

OBJECTIVE: To improve quality of care through decreasing existing gaps in the areas of coverage, retention, and wellness of patients receiving HIV care and treatment. DESIGN: The antiretroviral therapy (ART) Framework utilizes improvement methods and the Chronic Care Model to address the coverage, retention, and wellness gaps in HIV care and treatment. This is a time-series study. SETTING: The ART Framework was applied in five health centers in Buikwe District, Uganda. PARTICIPANTS: Quality improvement teams, consisting of healthcare workers and expert patients, were established in each of the five healthcare facilities. INTERVENTION: The intervention period was October 2010 to September 2012. It consisted of quality improvement teams analyzing their facility and systems of care from the perspective of the Chronic Care Model to identify areas of improvement. They implemented the ART Framework, collected data and assessed outcomes, focused on self-management support for patients, to improve coverage, retention, and wellness gaps in HIV care and treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Coverage was defined as every patient who needs ART in the catchment area, receives it. Retention was defined as every patient who receives ART stays on ART, and wellness defined as having a positive clinical, immunological, and/or virological response to treatment without intolerable or unmanageable side-effects. RESULTS: Results from Buikwe show the gaps in coverage, retention, and wellness greatly decreased a gap in coverage of 44-19%, gap in retention of 49-24%, and gap in wellness of 53-14% during a 2-year intervention period. CONCLUSION: The ART Framework is an innovative and practical tool for HIV program managers to improve HIV care and treatment.

Infected pressure ulcers in elderly individuals.

Pressure ulcers in elderly individuals can cause significant morbidity and mortality and are a major economic burden to the health care system. Prevention should be the ultimate objective of pressure ulcer care, and it requires an understanding of the pathophysiology leading to pressure ulcers and the means of reducing both intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors. Clinical manifestations are protean, and early recognition requires a low threshold of suspicion. Clinical examination often underestimates the degree of deep-tissue involvement, and its findings are inadequate for the detection of associated osteomyelitis. Microbiological data, if obtained from deep-tissue biopsy, are useful for directing antimicrobial therapy, but they are insufficient as the sole criterion for the diagnosis of infection. Imaging studies, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, are useful, but bone biopsy and histopathological evaluation remain the "gold standard" for the detection of osteomyelitis. The goals of treatment of pressure ulcers should be resolution of infection, promotion of wound healing, and establishment of effective infection control.