Stakeholder monitoring to improve quality of MNH care in public and private sector facilities following a district health systems approach

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Improving the quality of care is emphasized in maternal and neonatal health (MNH) to enhance efficacy and effectiveness of interventions. However, there is neither any globally accepted definition, nor any standardized tool to monitor quality of care in MNH. Bangladesh is on-track in achieving the targets for Millennium Development Goal 4 & 5 with low institutional delivery rate (29%), the majority (18%) of which takes place in for-profit private sector facilities. Poor quality of care in public facilities compels pregnant women to use private facilities which may lead to catastrophic health expenditure. Users may perceive services from private sector facilities to be superior to services from public facilities due to incentive mechanism. The unregulated private sector is growing fast in the country and there are reports of overcharging and unnecessary caesarean sections in the private facilities. Dual practice is common among public sector providers and referral from public to private for financial benefit is not uncommon. Governance is weak to oversee the pluralistic health system where the private sector is increasingly contributing in the health care delivery. Innovative systems' approach needed for better integration of private sector inputs to maximize their contribution in achieving the national public health goals. Audit and feedback has demonstrated its feasibility and effectiveness in improving providers performances in clinical settings in high-income countries. Several global programs such as JHPIEGO (Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics) and AMDD (Averting Maternal Death and Disability) of the Columbia University have developed tools to monitor and improve quality of MNH care. In this study we plan to review the existing audit and quality improvement tools to adapt them in Bangladesh to test its feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness in improving quality of MNH care following a district health systems approach. The study will be conducted in a medium performing district of Bangladesh following a mixed method, pretest-post-test research design .The tools developed, will be contextualized through multiple stakeholders consultations and finalized after pretesting in a hypothetical field outside the study district. A baseline study will be conducted for needs assessment and benchmarking the quality indicators in public and private sector hospitals for future evaluations. Baseline study will include SWOT and Stakeholders Analysis to understand the context and building broader alliance to facilitate the implementation of the designed interventions. District Quality Assurance (QA) Team will be formed involving key stakeholders in the district, including the users. Developed monitoring and feedback tool will include key quality indicators covering structure, process and outcome dimensions of quality of care and will be implemented through joint quarterly visit of all public and private facilities by the district QA team members. Feedback will be given every 6 monthly through workshops and periodic quality monitoring reports. Process documentation will be the key method for evaluation. Qualitative Key Informants Interviews with explore the enabling and constraining factors impacting both implementation and making changes in quality of MNH care. The quantitative pre and post intervention surveys will be the other methods for assessing the change in quality of care (both technical and perceived) due to introduction of stakeholders' monitoring and feedback. A costing exercise will measure the cost of interventions to inform policy for scale-up and sustainability. Study outcome will be communicated to target audience using multiple channels such as journal articles, conference abstracts, policy briefs and newspaper articles. An implementation research protocol will be developed to inform policy for future scale-up nationwide to impact maternal and neonatal health outcomes.