Assessment of Quality Improvement Project Implementation Practices at Addis Ababa Public Hospitals

Abstract

To achieve better health outcomes at the societal level, it is important to emphasize quality across the spectrum of health systems from the sub-national to the national and across primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care. The quality issue in Ethiopian health system was given high prominence in Health Sector Transformation plan (2015/16-2019/2020). The objective of this study was to assess the quality improvement (QI) project implementation in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Cross sectional descriptive study design with quantitative approach was used. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data electronically from 12 Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Out of 72 study participants for whom the questionnaire was sent 60 have responded making the response rate 83.3%. The questionnaire internal consistency was checked using Cronbach’s alpha. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. All 12 hospitals have started at least one new QI project while more than half of study participants (56.7%) have reported that their hospitals had graduated at least two QI projects within 12 months prior to the study. The QI team members have least influence on preparing project goal and resource allocation.