Dublin Core
Title
The Impact of Quality Improvement on Healthcare Delivery in Ghana: A Case Study of National Catholic Health Service
Creator
Isaac Rock Kumah
Description
Healthcare consumers are becoming more critical with the quality of healthcare they receive. As a result, there are increasing complaints about the poor quality of healthcare received in the public domain. Under-five mortality (U5M) is one of the key indicators in the determination of the quality of health of a nation. The Ministry of Health (MOH) and its agencies have over the years tried to reduce U5M to accelerate Ghana’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 by 2015 but with little success. The National Catholic Health Service (NCHS) in collaboration with Institute for Health Improvement (IHI) piloted the model for improvement, a quality improvement (QI) programme in nine catholic hospitals to reduce U5M and infant mortality. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the QI programme implemented by the NCHS. A mixed method approach and a cross-sectional design were used. Secondary data on U5M were collected from 2007 and 2015 and analysed. A modified version of Shortell’s QI instrument was administered to a sample of 51 midwives and 48 paediatric nurses from three selected catholic hospitals, namely; Techiman Holy Family, St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady of Grace. Frequencies and cross tabulations were used in the data analysis and presentation of results. Seven core management members from the three selected hospitals and one management staff of the NCHS were interviewed and data analysed using thematic content analysis approach.
The results show that, all the nine hospitals made great improvement in U5M when the implementation was at its peak. However, only three out of the nine hospitals were able to sustain the improvements made. Key factors that led to the inability of the hospitals to sustain improvements were identified and they include the organisational culture of the hospitals, management commitment and employee involvement. The findings provided an opportunity to develop a hybrid model which could be adopted by the MOH and its agencies to aid in the successful implementation of QI programmes in healthcare.
The results show that, all the nine hospitals made great improvement in U5M when the implementation was at its peak. However, only three out of the nine hospitals were able to sustain the improvements made. Key factors that led to the inability of the hospitals to sustain improvements were identified and they include the organisational culture of the hospitals, management commitment and employee involvement. The findings provided an opportunity to develop a hybrid model which could be adopted by the MOH and its agencies to aid in the successful implementation of QI programmes in healthcare.
Subject
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) In Health Care Management
Publisher
Ghana Technology University Library
Date
March 2017