September 2008-September 2013

Overview

USAID’s Health Care Improvement (HCI) project works with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the private sector to improve quality of health services in Afghanistan by developing much needed health capacity and infrastructure at the national and provincial levels, with a special focus on maternal and newborn care.  During 2012, HCI operated in Kabul, Balkh, Kunduz, Bamyan, Parwan, Herat, Wardak, Logar, Saripul and Samangan provinces and HCI-linked facilities provided services to more than 5 million people.  HCI assists the Improving Quality of Health Care (IQHC) Unit of the MoPH implement the Harmonization Process of Quality Improvement (QI) Approaches.  

Activities

• Support the MoPH: Supports the staff of the IQHC Unit to implement and evaluate the IQHC National Strategy and its five-year implementation plan, as well as to implement harmonized QI approaches nationwide.  
• Helping Babies Breathe (HBB): Train health providers in resource-limited areas in HBB, an evidence-based educational program for neonatal resuscitation.  
• Postpartum Family Planning (PPFP): Implements PPFP in five Kabul maternity hospitals to increase post-partum contraception.  This intervention will be taken over by the MoPH in mid-2013.
• Medical Records: Develop and implement a new medical record system for maternity hospitals countrywide.

Accomplishments

• Supported the MoPH in establishing the IQHC Unit to coordinate QI programs. 
• Supported the MoPH in developing the National Strategy for Improving Quality in Health Care and its five-year implementation plan.
• Supporting the IQHC unit of MoPH to align the existing QI approaches into one national approach and implement the harmonized approach at the provincial level.
• Trained 683 front-line providers on essential quality improvement methods and tools.
• Trained 74 national trainers and 617 first-line providers in neonatal resuscitation. 
• Provided systematic counseling on family planning and birth spacing to more than 24,000 post-partum clients.
• Made significant improvements in quality of care in: hand washing, partograph use, quality antenatal and postnatal care, management of the third stage of labor, essential newborn care, prevention and management of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, and maternal and newborn sepsis.
• Finalized the medical record package for maternity hospitals.