CONTENTS
Chapters
- The Importance of Quality
- The Quality Movement in Health Care
- Client-Centered Care
- Principles of Quality Movement
- Quality Design
- Quality Control
- Quality Improvement
HIGHLIGHTS
Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland
21202-4012, USA
Volume XXVI, Number 3
November, 1998
Series J, Number 47 |
Looking to the Future
Quality assurance is a continuous, long-term process. Making quality a top priority requires
fundamental changes in organizational culture, in goals and guidelines, and in daily operations.
Organizations typically move forward in a series of small steps, each building on previous
successes, rather than transforming themselves overnight (102, 315). Persistence is crucial:
Quality initiatives often must weather periods of discouragement, confusion, cynicism, and
complacency before good quality can be achieved and maintained (38, 102, 200). For example,
FPAK's efforts took nearly a decade to produce results (44).
Most developing-country initiatives to improve the quality of family planning and health care are
too recent to have been institutionalized or to show which approaches work best. Yet the
achievements to date have demonstrated the great potential of quality assurance for family
planning and other reproductive health care. Quality assurance efforts have helped organizations
use resources more efficiently, solved long-standing service delivery problems, raised the quality of care, and increased client satisfaction. Quality assurance concepts and methods will continue to evolve as researchers and program managers test different approaches. With time and
continued effort, health programs will learn the best ways to assure and keep improving the
quality of services. |
