Quality improvement and emerging global health priorities.

Quality improvement approaches can strengthen action on a range of global health priorities. Quality improvement efforts are uniquely placed to reorient care delivery systems towards integrated people-centred health services and strengthen health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This article makes the case for addressing shortfalls of previous agendas by articulating the critical role of quality improvement in the Sustainable Development Goal era. Quality improvement can stimulate convergence between health security and health systems; address global health security priorities through participatory quality improvement approaches; and improve health outcomes at all levels of the health system. Entry points for action include the linkage with antimicrobial resistance and the contentious issue of the health of migrants. The work required includes focussed attention on the continuum of national quality policy formulation, implementation and learning; alongside strengthening the measurement-improvement linkage. Quality improvement plays a key role in strengthening health systems to achieve UHC.

Organizing integrated health-care services to meet older people's needs.

In most countries, a fundamental shift in the focus of clinical care for older people is needed. Instead of trying to manage numerous diseases and symptoms in a disjointed fashion, the emphasis should be on interventions that optimize older people's physical and mental capacities over their life course and that enable them to do the things they value. This, in turn, requires a change in the way services are organized: there should be more integration within the health system and between health and social services. Existing organizational structures do not have to merge; rather, a wide array of service providers must work together in a more coordinated fashion. The evidence suggests that integrated health and social care for older people contributes to better health outcomes at a cost equivalent to usual care, thereby giving a better return on investment than more familiar ways of working. Moreover, older people can participate in, and contribute to, society for longer. Integration at the level of clinical care is especially important: older people should undergo comprehensive assessments with the goal of optimizing functional ability and care plans should be shared among all providers. At the health system level, integrated care requires: (i) supportive policy, plans and regulatory frameworks; (ii) workforce development; (iii) investment in information and communication technologies; and (iv) the use of pooled budgets, bundled payments and contractual incentives. However, action can be taken at all levels of health care from front-line providers through to senior leaders - everyone has a role to play.

Dans la plupart des pays, un changement fondamental de priorité dans l'organisation des soins cliniques destinés aux personnes âgées est nécessaire. Plutôt que d'essayer de gérer la variété des maladies et symptômes de manière individuelle, l'accent devrait être mis sur les interventions qui optimisent les capacités physiques et mentales des personnes âgées sur tout leur parcours de vie et qui leur permettent de continuer de réaliser les activités qui comptent pour elles. Mais cela suppose de modifier le mode d'organisation des prestations, avec une meilleure intégration à l'intérieur du système de santé et entre les services de santé et d'aide sociale. Cela ne signifie pas que les structures existantes doivent fusionner, mais plutôt qu'une grande diversité de prestataires doit travailler ensemble de manière plus coordonnée. Des données factuelles montrent que des prestations de santé et d'aide sociale intégrées entraînent de meilleurs résultats sur la santé des personnes âgées que les prestations de soins habituelles, pour un coût équivalent; d'où l'obtention d'une meilleure rentabilité des investissements comparativement aux modes de travail classiques. Elles permettent aussi aux personnes âgées de s'impliquer socialement et d'apporter leurs contributions à la société pendant plus longtemps. Une telle intégration est particulièrement importante au niveau des soins cliniques: des évaluations exhaustives devraient être réalisées chez les personnes âgées dans une optique d'optimisation de leurs capacités fonctionnelles, et les plans de soins devraient être communs à tous les prestataires. Au niveau du système de santé, l'intégration des prestations nécessite: (i) l'adoption de politiques, programmes et cadres réglementaires favorables; (ii) le développement du personnel de santé; (iii) un investissement dans les technologies de l'information et de la communication; et (iv) la mise en place de budgets communs, de paiements regroupés et de mesures contractuelles incitatives. Toutefois, des actions peuvent être entreprises à tous les niveaux d'organisation des soins de santé, depuis les prestataires de première ligne jusqu'aux hauts responsables ­ tout le monde a un rôle à jouer.

En la mayoría de países se necesita un cambio fundamental en el enfoque de la atención clínica que reciben las personas mayores. En lugar de intentar gestionar numerosas enfermedades y síntomas por separado, debería ponerse énfasis en las intervenciones que optimizan las capacidades físicas y mentales de las personas mayores durante su vida y que les permitan hacer lo que ellos valoran. Esto, a su vez, requiere un cambio en la forma en la que se organizan los servicios: debería haber más integración dentro del sistema sanitario y entre los servicios sanitarios y sociales. Las estructuras organizativas existentes no deben fusionarse, sino que el amplio conjunto de proveedores de servicios debe trabajar conjuntamente de una forma más coordinada. Las pruebas indican que la atención sanitaria y social integrada para las personas mayores contribuye a unos mejores resultados sanitarios a un coste equivalente a la atención habitual. De esta forma, se obtiene una mayor rentabilidad de la inversión que la obtenida con formas de trabajar más familiares. Además, las personas mayores pueden participar y contribuir en la sociedad durante más tiempo. La integración a nivel de la atención clínica es especialmente importante: las personas mayores deberían someterse a asesoramiento integral con el objetivo de optimizar la capacidad funcional, y deberían compartirse los planes de atención entre todos los proveedores. A nivel del sistema sanitario, la atención integrada requiere: (i) política, planes y marcos normativos de apoyo; (ii) desarrollo del personal sanitario; (iii) inversión en tecnologías de la información y comunicación; y (iv) el uso de presupuestos y pagos combinados e incentivos contractuales. No obstante, esto puede realizarse en todos los niveles de la atención sanitaria, desde los proveedores de primera línea hasta el personal directivo; todos juegan un papel.

Surgical Human Resources According to Types of Health Care Facility: An Assessment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

BACKGROUND: A robust health care system providing safe surgical care to a population can only be achieved in conjunction with access to competent surgical personnel. It has been reported that 5 billion people do not have access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care when needed. This study aims to fill the existing gap in evidence by quantifying shortfalls in trained personnel delivering safe surgical and anaesthetic care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) according to the type of health care facility. METHODS: We conducted secondary analysis of 1323 health facilities, in 35 low- and middle-income countries using facility-based cross-sectional data from the World Health Organization Situational Analysis Tool to Assess Emergency and Essential Surgical Care. RESULTS: The majority of surgical and anaesthetic care in LMICs was provided by general doctors (range 13.8-41.1%; mean 27.1%). Non-physicians made up a significant proportion of the surgical workforce in LMICs. 26.76% of the surgical and anaesthetic workforce was provided by clinical medical officers and nurses. Private/NGO/mission hospitals, large, well-resourced institutions had the highest proportion of surgeons compared to any other type of health care facility at 27.92%. This compares to figures of 18.2 and 19.96% of surgeons at health centres and subdistrict/community hospitals, respectively, representing the lowest level of health facility. CONCLUSIONS: We highlight the significant proportion of non-physicians delivering surgical and anaesthetic care in LMICs and illustrate wide variations according to the type of health care facility.

Implementation of the World Health Organization Trauma Care Checklist Program in 11 Centers Across Multiple Economic Strata: Effect on Care Process Measures.

BACKGROUND: Trauma contributes more than ten percent of the global burden of disease. Initial assessment and resuscitation of trauma patients often requires rapid diagnosis and management of multiple concurrent complex conditions, and errors are common. We investigated whether implementing a trauma care checklist would improve care for injured patients in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. METHODS: From 2010 to 2012, the impact of the World Health Organization (WHO) Trauma Care Checklist program was assessed in 11 hospitals using a stepped wedge pre- and post-intervention comparison with randomly assigned intervention start dates. Study sites represented nine countries with diverse economic and geographic contexts. Primary end points were adherence to process of care measures; secondary data on morbidity and mortality were also collected. Multilevel logistic regression models examined differences in measures pre- versus post-intervention, accounting for patient age, gender, injury severity, and center-specific variability. RESULTS: Data were collected on 1641 patients before and 1781 after program implementation. Patient age (mean 34 ± 18 vs. 34 ± 18), sex (21 vs. 22 % female), and the proportion of patients with injury severity scores (ISS) ≥ 25 (10 vs. 10 %) were similar before and after checklist implementation (p > 0.05). Improvement was found for 18 of 19 process measures, including greater odds of having abdominal examination (OR 3.26), chest auscultation (OR 2.68), and distal pulse examination (OR 2.33) (all p < 0.05). These changes were robust to several sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of the WHO Trauma Care Checklist was associated with substantial improvements in patient care process measures among a cohort of patients in diverse settings.

Influence of aerobic fitness on vasoreactivity in young men.

Previous work has demonstrated a direct relationship between aerobic fitness and vasodilatory function (i.e., flow-mediated dilation; FMD); however, the relation between aerobic fitness and vasoconstrictor responsiveness (i.e., low flow-mediated constriction; L-FMC), and the overall vasoactive range (FMD + L-FMC) is unclear. PURPOSE: To test the hypothesis that L-FMC and the overall vasoactive range (FMD + L-FMC) will be related to aerobic fitness in young, healthy men. METHODS: Twenty men (age: 23 ± 5 years) were recruited, and divided evenly into a higher (HF) vs. lower (LF) aerobic fitness group, quantified via YMCA cycle ergometry (VO2 peak extrapolation), and a 3-min step test (1-min heart rate recovery). Duplex Doppler-ultrasound was used to assess brachial artery FMD and L-FMC. RESULTS: Estimated VO2 peak (HF = 55 ± 10 vs. LF = 38 ± 5 mL/kg/min) and heart rate recovery (HF = 36 ± 10 vs. LF = 25 ± 8 beats) were greater in the HF group (P < 0.05). FMD and the vasoactive range were similar between groups; however, L-FMC was significantly greater in HF (HF = -2.5 ± 1.6 vs. LF = -0.7 ± 1.8%, P < 0.05; d = 1.18). A correlational analysis revealed an inverse relationship between L-FMC and both HR recovery (r = -0.665, P < 0.01) and estimated VO2 peak (r = -0.5, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This work supports an association between L-FMC and aerobic fitness in young, healthy men. Longitudinal or interventional studies are warranted to support causality, and to distinguish whether L-FMC is more sensitive to changes in aerobic fitness than FMD.

Assessment of Acute Burn Management in 32 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether acute burn management (ABM) is available at health facilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHOD: The study used the World Health Organization situational analysis tool (SAT) which is designed to assess emergency and essential surgical care and includes data points relevant to the acute management of burns. The SAT was available for 1413 health facilities in 59 countries. RESULTS: A majority (1036, 77.5 %) of the health facilities are able to perform ABM. The main reasons for the referral of ABM are lack of skills (53.4 %) and non-functioning equipment (52.2 %). Considering health centres and district/rural/community hospitals that referred due to lack of supplies/drugs and/or non-functioning equipment, almost half of the facilities were not able to provide continuous and consistent access to the equipment required either for resuscitation or to perform burn wound debridement. Out of the facilities that performed ABM, 379 (36.6 %) are capable of carrying out skin grafts and contracture release, which is indicative of their ability to manage full thickness burns. However the magnitude of full thickness burns managed was limited in half of these facilities, as they did not have access to a blood bank. CONCLUSION: The initial management of acute burns is generally available in LMICs, however it is constrained by the inability to perform resuscitation (19 %) and/or burn wound debridement (10 %). For more severe burns, an inability to perform skin grafting or contracture release limits definitive management of full thickness burns, whilst lack of availability to blood further compromises the treatment of major burns.

Strengthening the evidence-policy interface for patient safety: enhancing global health through hospital partnerships.

Strengthening the evidence-policy interface is a well-recognized health system challenge in both the developed and developing world. Brokerage inherent in hospital-to-hospital partnerships can boost relationships between "evidence" and "policy" communities and move developing countries towards evidence based patient safety policy. In particular, we use the experience of a global hospital partnership programme focused on patient safety in the African Region to explore how hospital partnerships can be instrumental in advancing responsive decision-making, and the translation of patient safety evidence into health policy and planning. A co-developed approach to evidence-policy strengthening with seven components is described, with reflections from early implementation. This rapidly expanding field of enquiry is ripe for shared learning across continents, in keeping with the principles and spirit of health systems development in a globalized world.

Developed-developing country partnerships: benefits to developed countries?

Developing countries can generate effective solutions for today's global health challenges. This paper reviews relevant literature to construct the case for international cooperation, and in particular, developed-developing country partnerships. Standard database and web-based searches were conducted for publications in English between 1990 and 2010. Studies containing full or partial data relating to international cooperation between developed and developing countries were retained for further analysis. Of 227 articles retained through initial screening, 65 were included in the final analysis. The results were two-fold: some articles pointed to intangible benefits accrued by developed country partners, but the majority of information pointed to developing country innovations that can potentially inform health systems in developed countries. This information spanned all six WHO health system components. Ten key health areas where developed countries have the most to learn from the developing world were identified and include, rural health service delivery; skills substitution; decentralisation of management; creative problem-solving; education in communicable disease control; innovation in mobile phone use; low technology simulation training; local product manufacture; health financing; and social entrepreneurship. While there are no guarantees that innovations from developing country experiences can effectively transfer to developed countries, combined developed-developing country learning processes can potentially generate effective solutions for global health systems. However, the global pool of knowledge in this area is virgin and further work needs to be undertaken to advance understanding of health innovation diffusion. Even more urgently, a standardized method for reporting partnership benefits is needed--this is perhaps the single most immediate need in planning for, and realizing, the full potential of international cooperation between developed and developing countries.

Charting the way forward to better quality health care: how do we get there and what are the next steps? Recommendations from the Salzburg Global Seminar on making health care better in low- and middle-income economies.

OBJECTIVE: In April 2012, the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) brought together 58 health leaders from 33 countries to review experiences in improving the quality and safety of health-care services in low- and middle-income countries, synthesize lessons learned from those experiences, discuss challenges and opportunities and recommend next steps to stimulate improvement in such countries. This work summarizes the seminar's key results, expressed as five shared challenges and five lessons learned. DESIGN: The seminar featured a series of interactive sessions with an all-teach, all-learn approach. Session topics were: introduction to the seminar, journey to date, challenges that lie ahead, overcoming the issues of confusion, sustaining execution, strengthening leadership and policy, the role of quality improvement in health systems strengthening and setting the agenda for learning and next steps. RESULTS: Key lessons from the SGS include reducing terminology and methodology confusion, strengthening the learning agenda, embracing improvement science as a means for strengthening health-care systems, developing leadership in improving health care and ensuring that health-care systems focus on patients and communities. A call to action was developed by SGS participants and presented at the 65th World Health Assembly in Geneva. CONCLUSION: There is an inarguable need to move improvement in health care to a new level to attain and exceed the Millennium Development Goals. The challenges can be overcome through concerted action of key stakeholders and the application of scientifically grounded management methods to enable the reliable implementation of high-impact interventions for every patient every time needed.

COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plans from 106 countries: a review from a health systems resilience perspective.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed long-standing fragmentation in health systems strengthening efforts for health security and universal health coverage while these objectives are largely interdependent and complementary. In this prevailing background, we reviewed countries' COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plans (CPRPs) to assess the extent of integration of non-COVID-19 essential health service continuity considerations alongside emergency response activities. We searched for COVID-19 planning documents from governments and ministries of health, World Health Organization (WHO) country offices and United Nations (UN) country teams. We developed document review protocols using global guidance from the WHO and UN and the health systems resilience literature. After screening, we analysed 154 CPRPs from 106 countries. The majority of plans had a high degree of alignment with pillars of emergency response such as surveillance (99%), laboratory systems (96%) and COVID-19-specific case management (97%). Less than half considered maintaining essential health services (47%); 41% designated a mechanism for health system-wide participation in emergency planning; 34% considered subnational service delivery; 95% contained infection prevention and control (IPC) activities and 29% considered quality of care; and 24% were budgeted for and 7% contained monitoring and evaluation of essential health services. To improve, ongoing and future emergency planning should proactively include proportionate activities, resources and monitoring for essential health services to reduce excess mortality and morbidity. Specifically, this entails strengthening subnational health services with local stakeholder engagement in planning; ensuring a dedicated focus in emergency operations structures to maintain health systems resilience for non-emergency health services; considering all domains of quality in health services along with IPC; and building resilient monitoring capacity for timely and reliable tracking of health systems functionality including service utilization and health outcomes. An integrated approach to planning should be pursued as health systems recover from COVID-19 disruptions and take actions to build back better.