Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics

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dc.contributor.advisorCoetzee, Nen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorHaidula, Leenaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-18T06:00:30Z
dc.date.available2014-10-18T06:00:30Z
dc.date.issued2003en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: leaves 37-38.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractMalaria is a major public health problem in Namibia and this problem warrants special attention in terms of monitoring the trends and formulating controls and prevention strategies at all levels of the health care system and the community. Malaria accounts for more than 40 % of the diagnosed outpatients cases in the health facilities. Malaria is the leading cause of ill health and deaths among both children and adults, particularly in the northern regions of Namibia where about 60% of the population lives. This disease is seasonal with the potential for epidemic proportions, which are related to exceptionally heavy rainfall. There is increasing evidence that malaria cases are poorly managed and the staffs is poorly supervised, especially at clinic levels where all malaria cases are clinically diagnosed A number of health workers have been trained in various aspects of malaria control including case management; there is a need to evaluate their performance in order to sustain high quality care. Their performance must be evaluated regularly and feedback given so that practices could be adjusted and improved. What is required is a validated, acceptable, applicable and useful instrument that can be used routinely for assessment clinic based quality care performance. The Ministry of Health and Social Services developed a national guideline for malaria case management used at different facilities and levels in the country. There is no affordable and applicable continuous assessment instrument of the quality of health care that can be used by primary health care supervisors to assess the quality of malaria case management at health care clinics. The aim of this study is to develop and pilot a performance based quality assessment instrument for routine quality assessment of malaria case management to be used by district supervisors in public health care clinics in Namibia. The instrument developed was found to be useful by the district supervisors and the clinic staff interviewed during the assessment period. Poor referral systems, lack of training on malaria case management and poor supervision were the major problems identified in this pilot study. These problems have been discussed with the clinic staffs and the district supervisors concerned for appropriate action. The developed instrument has enabled me to obtain a rapid and general overview of the clinic performances related to quality services provided to malaria patients. The information obtained evidenced the usefulness of this instrument. This pilot study has established the baseline information for quality assessment of malaria case management for the primary health care clinics assessed. However, it has been noted that continuous assessment of health services performances is very important if the quality of malaria case management is to be achieved.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationHaidula, L. (2003). <i>Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8603en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationHaidula, Leena. <i>"Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8603en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationHaidula, L. 2003. Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Haidula, Leena AB - Malaria is a major public health problem in Namibia and this problem warrants special attention in terms of monitoring the trends and formulating controls and prevention strategies at all levels of the health care system and the community. Malaria accounts for more than 40 % of the diagnosed outpatients cases in the health facilities. Malaria is the leading cause of ill health and deaths among both children and adults, particularly in the northern regions of Namibia where about 60% of the population lives. This disease is seasonal with the potential for epidemic proportions, which are related to exceptionally heavy rainfall. There is increasing evidence that malaria cases are poorly managed and the staffs is poorly supervised, especially at clinic levels where all malaria cases are clinically diagnosed A number of health workers have been trained in various aspects of malaria control including case management; there is a need to evaluate their performance in order to sustain high quality care. Their performance must be evaluated regularly and feedback given so that practices could be adjusted and improved. What is required is a validated, acceptable, applicable and useful instrument that can be used routinely for assessment clinic based quality care performance. The Ministry of Health and Social Services developed a national guideline for malaria case management used at different facilities and levels in the country. There is no affordable and applicable continuous assessment instrument of the quality of health care that can be used by primary health care supervisors to assess the quality of malaria case management at health care clinics. The aim of this study is to develop and pilot a performance based quality assessment instrument for routine quality assessment of malaria case management to be used by district supervisors in public health care clinics in Namibia. The instrument developed was found to be useful by the district supervisors and the clinic staff interviewed during the assessment period. Poor referral systems, lack of training on malaria case management and poor supervision were the major problems identified in this pilot study. These problems have been discussed with the clinic staffs and the district supervisors concerned for appropriate action. The developed instrument has enabled me to obtain a rapid and general overview of the clinic performances related to quality services provided to malaria patients. The information obtained evidenced the usefulness of this instrument. This pilot study has established the baseline information for quality assessment of malaria case management for the primary health care clinics assessed. However, it has been noted that continuous assessment of health services performances is very important if the quality of malaria case management is to be achieved. DA - 2003 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2003 T1 - Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics TI - Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8603 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/8603
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationHaidula L. Quality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinics. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, 2003 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8603en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Public Health and Family Medicineen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Health Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherPublic Healthen_ZA
dc.titleQuality assessment of malaria case management in public primary health care clinics in Namibia : development of an instrument to be used by the district primary health care supervisors in clinicsen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMPHen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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