We found that substantial evidence exists for achieving cost savings and efficiency improvements from task shifting activities related to tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS , and additional evidence exists for the potential to achieve cost savings from activities related to malaria , NCDs , NTDs , childhood illness , and other disease areas , especially at the primary health care and community levels .
Conclusions Task shifting presents a viable option for health system cost savings in LMICs .
Background Task shifting has become an increasingly popular way to increase access to health services , especially in low-re source setting s. Research has demonstrated that task shifting , including the use of community health workers ( CHWs ) to deliver care , can improve population health .
This systematic review investigates whether task shifting in low-income and middle-income countries ( LMICs ) results in efficiency improvements by achieving cost savings .
Primary health care nurses implement and evaluate a community outreach approach to health care in the South African agricultural sector.
BACKGROUND Early detection and effective case management of tuberculosis ( TB ) among a high-risk group of material ly poor farm workers in an area of the Cape Winel and s , South Africa , presents special challenges to the health community , where re source constraints lead to service reduction . In order to address this problem , local nurses established a collaborative partnership between permanent farm workers and their families , their employers , selected non-governmental organizations and the public health sector . In consultation with stakeholders , they developed an intervention primarily focusing on having peer selected trained lay health workers ( LHWs ) on farms , mentored and managed by nurses . PURPOSE To describe the complex process of implementation and evaluation of the LHW project , and provide a summary of a number of discrete studies evaluating the effectiveness , cost implication s , and the perceptions and experiences of key stakeholders of the intervention . METHODS Quantitative and qualitative research methods conducted within the context of a pragmatic unblinded community cluster r and omized control trial were used . Emphasis was placed on an iterative participatory interaction between the research ers and key stakeholders . RESULTS The intervention contributed to significantly better successful treatment completion rates among adult new smear-positive TB cases . The process implemented proved cost-effective and was pivotal in initiating a community-based social development programme . CONCLUSIONS The use of peer-selected LHWs within a wider programme of integrated care design ed to merge technical biomedical approaches to disease management with more holistic social development activities , appears essential to meet the complex health needs in conjunction with public health of the rural poor
We found that substantial evidence exists for achieving cost savings and efficiency improvements from task shifting activities related to tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS , and additional evidence exists for the potential to achieve cost savings from activities related to malaria , NCDs , NTDs , childhood illness , and other disease areas , especially at the primary health care and community levels .
Conclusions Task shifting presents a viable option for health system cost savings in LMICs .
Background Task shifting has become an increasingly popular way to increase access to health services , especially in low-re source setting s. Research has demonstrated that task shifting , including the use of community health workers ( CHWs ) to deliver care , can improve population health .
This systematic review investigates whether task shifting in low-income and middle-income countries ( LMICs ) results in efficiency improvements by achieving cost savings .