Health Care Intervention Research- Improving Pre-natal and Maternal Care

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Besides a dramatic lack of financial and human resources in developing countries, health care is additionally endangered by quality deficiencies caused by low staff motivation. This lack of motivation leads to an insufficient translation of knowledge into optimal utilization of resources. The know-do gap represents a challenge that must be addressed to strengthen health services performance towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This is in particular true for some sensitive sectors like pre-natal and maternal health care. General objective of this research is to improve maternal health through better pre-natal and maternal care services offered by better motivated health workers. A computer-assisted clinical decision support system (CDSS) will be developed, implemented and tested aiming at (I) quality improvement of maternal and newborn care and (II) assessment of provider's performance. Based on this tool a commonly agreed incentive scheme to increase motivation will be shaped and tested in three SSA - countries, namely Burkina, Ghana, and Tanzania. The incentive scheme might contain both non-monetary and monetary incentives and will be designed according to the human resource policy in the three countries. The planned approach is an implementation study with control arms containing one hospital and 6 first line health facilities in each of the study districts and an equal number of facilities in the control arm. A set of indicators for measurement of changes in quality of delivered services will be identified in order to follow up the sustainability and effectiveness of the strategies after their implementation. The study findings will allow understanding the important factors of staff motivation and facilitate adequate management for improvement of maternal and neonatal health care. Knowing is not enough, we must apply; Wanting to do, is not enough, we must do it1 - J.W. v. Goethe

Official Title
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Health Care Intervention Research-Quality of Prenatal and Maternal Care: Bridging the Know-do Gap (QUALMAT)

Conditions
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Antenatal Care and Delivery

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: CDSS


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: the patient in the primary health care center Exclusion Criteria: patients outside the research regions

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 12 Years
Maximum Age: 45 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: without CDSS<br>This arm includes 6 health facilities in each partner country, where the clinical decision support system will not be implemented | Other: CDSS<br>* Clinical Decision Support System<br>|
| Experimental: with CDSS<br>This arm includes 6 health facilities in each partner country, where the clinical decision support system will be implemented, parallel to the performance based incentive package | Other: CDSS<br>* Clinical Decision Support System<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| motivation | This research aims to increase the motivation of the health care providers through two parallel intervention packages- implementation of Clinical decision support system and incentive packages, based on the performance. | 2 years | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Improved quality of health services in ANC and delivery | This research aims to improve the quality of the services provided through better motivated health workers | 2 years | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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clinical decision support system, performance based incentives, quality of maternal health care services