Use of Routine Health Information System Data to Monitor and Improve Quality of Care

Use of Routine Health Information System Data to Monitor and Improve Quality of Care
Abstract: To reduce maternal and neonatal mortality substantially and move towards eliminating preventable causes of maternal and newborn death, increased coverage of services should be accompanied by improved quality throughout the continuum of care. Data enable practitioners to accurately identify quality of care (QOC) problems, prioritize quality improvement initiatives, and objectively assess whether QOC change and improvement has occurred. Collecting and analyzing data are therefore central to the function of quality improvement in any health service.

The World Health Organization (WHO), with support from various global partners, has developed QOC standards for improving maternal and newborn care, child and young adolescent care, care for small and sick newborns, and a monitoring framework and measures.

This study, funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Global Health through the Data for Impact (D4I) project, used the WHO framework with some adaptations to assess how practitioners and government officials use the QOC indicators to inform reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) decision making in Bangladesh.

Study objectives included:

1. To document what routine health information systems, data elements, and indicators referenced in the WHO framework are available and used in Bangladesh for quality improvement.

2. To document who the RHIS data users are and their perception and experience of using RHIS for QOC improvement efforts.
Shortname: FS-21-530
Author(s): D4I
Year: 2022
Language: English
Region(s): BANGLADESH
Filed under: Bangladesh