Ghana Sustainability Project
With funding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Ubora Institute, in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), assisted the Ministry of Health in Ghana with the development and its current implementation of a National Healthcare Quality Strategy. The strategy was launched on December 1st, 2016 by the at that time Chief Director of the Ministry of Health Dr Afisah Zakariah, on behalf of the Sector Minister Hon. Dr Alex Segbefia. The aim of the strategy is to strengthen national-level sponsorship for a health system that mainstreams and integrates Quality Improvement Methodologies by creating a harmonized and coordinated health system that places the client at the centre of healthcare and that ensures continuously improved measurable health outcomes. Situated within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Ghana’s Health Sector Medium-Term Development Plan the Strategy aims at improving the quality of health service delivery.
A Quality Management Unit (QMU) has since been set up within the Ministry of Health, headed by Dr Ernest Konadu Asiedu, to lead the coordination and implementation of the National Healthcare Quality Strategy by the Ministry of Health and its agencies. To demonstrate what integration of Quality Improvement into the healthcare system looks like; a peer-to-peer Learning Network (Adaptive Learning Collaborative(ALC)) is being implemented in five (5) districts of the Greater Accra Region — Tema Metropolis, La-Nkwantang-Madina, La Dade Kotopon, Ga West, Ada East covering 6 hospitals and 15 health centres/polyclinics; aiming to reduce Maternal Mortality and Neonatal Mortality by 25% by December 2018 in the five (5) selected districts.
Since the initiation of the ALC in March 2017, with the start of the first training sessions for frontline health professionals, Neonatal Mortality Rate has reduced by 15.6% post-intervention over a 19-month implementation period (March 2017-September 2018). The same intervention period has resulted in a 31.6 percent reduction in the maternal deaths that occurred in the selected facilities.
The Ghana Sustainability Project started in October 2015 with the setup of a sustainable and independent African-based quality improvement institute, a not-for-profit company incorporated in Ghana as Ubora Quality Institute.
