Project Materials

UTILIZATION OF DONABEDIAN MODEL IN EVALUATION OF MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCARE QUALITY SERVICE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Study 

Great predictors of mother and infant illness and death include the quality of prenatal treatment and the location of birth. Over the past year, there has been persistent worry about how healthcare facilities can improve and maintain the quality of treatment they provide.

Insightful feedback from satisfied patients can help healthcare professionals, managers, and policymakers focus their efforts on improving patient care (Beattie, Lauder, Atherton, Murphy 2014).

Tobin-West and Anastasia (2016) state that quality evaluation is a crucial part of quality assurance since it seeks for problems and obstacles in a system rather than focussing on poor performers.

According to reports, 289 000 women lose their lives each year due to issues that arise during pregnancy and childbirth. Also, according to the World Health Organisation (2013), around 6.6 million children younger than 5 years old died as a result of problems during the newborn period or early childhood illnesses. With access to high-quality, optimum maternal and child health care, these fatalities might be avoided.

The disparity between the quantity and quality of health care facilities offer has meant that efforts to improve maternal and child health outcomes have made very little headway, despite notable successes in other areas of reproductive, women’s, and children’s health interventions (WHO, UNICEF, 2014). Global initiatives including the Every Woman and Child Strategy place a premium on high-quality healthcare.

Problems during pregnancy, childbirth, or the first six weeks after giving birth kill an estimated half a million women and girls every year. The majority of these fatalities occur in less developed nations, making childbirth a terrifying experience for women of childbearing age (United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2009).

Statistics reveal that the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth is rising in low and middle income nations, which is concerning (United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, 2014).

Similarly, the chance of death during pregnancy and delivery is 1 in every 13 in Nigeria. At least 145 women of childbearing age and 2,300 children under the age of five die every day in Nigeria. Based on these numbers, Nigeria was deemed the world’s second-worst country for maternal and under-five mortality.

The coverage and quality of health care services in Nigeria still fail to meet expectations for women and children, which is a major contributing factor to these preventable fatalities.

Less than 20% of Nigerian health facilities offer emergency obstetric care (Eoc), and only around 35% of births are attended by medical personnel, according to a 2014 report by the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

In 1988, Nigerians draughted a national health strategy with the goal of providing everyone with high-quality healthcare. To enhance the quality of health care services nationwide, the policy has been reviewed throughout the years in response to emerging health concerns and the need to concentrate on current trends (Nigeria Demographic Survey, 2013).

U.S. Agency for International Development (2013) states that in order to reduce maternal morbidity and death, a health delivery system must guarantee that this population receives high-quality reproductive healthcare.

For the purpose of evaluating healthcare services and their quality, the Donabedian model was created in 1966. The model, which underwent a revision in 1988, offers data on care quality in three parts: structure, procedure, and results. The structure of a healthcare facility includes its physical location, personnel, funding, and the tools and machinery used to provide treatment.

The exchanges that take place between patients and healthcare providers are all part of the process. Client happiness and the change in their health state are two examples of healthcare outcomes.

The Donabedian Model has been the preeminent framework for evaluating healthcare quality ever since its development; however, other frameworks have since emerged, such as the Bamako Initiative and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Quality of Care Framework (Lawson and Yazdany 2012).

Care quality indicators for mothers, newborns, and children were developed in 2013 by the World Health Organisation and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health using the Donabedian approach.