Adoption of Quality Health Care Strategies on Universal Health Care at Makueni County Referral Hospital

Abstract

Quality of health care in low-and middle-income countries is below the expectations and hence the need to focus on strategies to increase the quality of care. Whereas a number of reforms have been initiated to enhance the quality of care services and achieving universal health coverage, the results remain suboptimal. The study sought to establish the quality health care strategies adopted in the implementation of universal health care at the Makueni County referral hospital. The study was designed as a case study of Makueni County referral hospital. The study used an interview guided questionnaire to collect primary data from the senior management of Makueni County referral hospital including the County Director of Medical services, the County executive committee for health and the Medical superintendent among others while the secondary data was collected from online sources. The data was analyzed using content analysis. The study established that the adoption of quality health care strategies such as result-based financing, adequate health infrastructure, adequate human resource, quality management systems and standards, adoption of ICT, and training of staff in strategic leadership enhanced universal health care adoption. The study also identified critical drivers enhancing universal health care service delivery including strategic plan, service delivery charter, management systems and standards as well as health infrastructure and physical facilities. The application of quality health care strategies was found to face drawbacks including inadequate staff, poor maintenance of facilities, bureaucracy, and political interference among others. The study established that an influx of patients to the facility was a big threat to the health care system because it puts a strain on the workload for medical staff creating the need to recruit more health care staff. The study recommends the use of robust and advanced analytics at the hospital level to facilitate the adoption of informed choices of aspects such as drug availability, financing as well as management of patients. There is also need to regularly upgrade IT systems to enable the systems to focus more on health care information and not only on procurement and billing. The study recommends further research on the correlation between accreditation and quality healthcare Improvement in referral hospitals.