The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the centrality of primary care in protecting people’s health and well-being during and beyond crises. It has also provided an opportunity to strengthen and redesign primary care so that it will better serve its...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/567791617298477787/The-Realities-of-Primary-Care-Variation-in-Quality-of-Care-Across-Nine-Countries-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35402 |
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okr-10986-354022022-09-20T00:10:03Z The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Andrews, Kathryn Conner, Ruben Gatti, Roberta Sharma, Jigyasa PRIMARY HEALTH CARE HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY HEALTH FACILITY HEALTH INDICATORS SURVEYS The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the centrality of primary care in protecting people’s health and well-being during and beyond crises. It has also provided an opportunity to strengthen and redesign primary care so that it will better serve its purpose. However, to-date there is limited evidence on the quality of service delivery in primary care. Service Delivery Indicators surveys have attempted to fill this gap. Using Service Delivery Indicators surveys of 7,810 health facilities and 66,151 health care providers in nine Sub-Saharan African countries, this paper investigates the quality of care across five domains to understand a citizen’s experience of primary care in his/her country. The results indicate substantial heterogeneity in the quality of primary care service delivery between and within countries. The availability of basic equipment, infrastructure, and essential medicines varies—public facilities, facilities in rural areas, and non-hospitals are more lacking compared with private facilities, urban facilities, and hospitals. In terms of patient care, health care providers’ ability to correctly diagnose and treat common health conditions is low and variably distributed. COVID-19 has catalyzed a long overdue health system redesign effort, and the Service Delivery Indicators surveys offer an opportunity to examine carefully the quality of service delivery, with an eye toward health system reform. 2021-04-08T15:50:26Z 2021-04-08T15:50:26Z 2021-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/567791617298477787/The-Realities-of-Primary-Care-Variation-in-Quality-of-Care-Across-Nine-Countries-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35402 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9607 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY HEALTH FACILITY HEALTH INDICATORS SURVEYS |
| spellingShingle |
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY HEALTH FACILITY HEALTH INDICATORS SURVEYS Andrews, Kathryn Conner, Ruben Gatti, Roberta Sharma, Jigyasa The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9607 |
| description |
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted
the centrality of primary care in protecting people’s health
and well-being during and beyond crises. It has also
provided an opportunity to strengthen and redesign primary
care so that it will better serve its purpose. However,
to-date there is limited evidence on the quality of service
delivery in primary care. Service Delivery Indicators
surveys have attempted to fill this gap. Using Service
Delivery Indicators surveys of 7,810 health facilities and
66,151 health care providers in nine Sub-Saharan African
countries, this paper investigates the quality of care
across five domains to understand a citizen’s experience of
primary care in his/her country. The results indicate
substantial heterogeneity in the quality of primary care
service delivery between and within countries. The
availability of basic equipment, infrastructure, and
essential medicines varies—public facilities, facilities in
rural areas, and non-hospitals are more lacking compared
with private facilities, urban facilities, and hospitals. In
terms of patient care, health care providers’ ability to
correctly diagnose and treat common health conditions is low
and variably distributed. COVID-19 has catalyzed a long
overdue health system redesign effort, and the Service
Delivery Indicators surveys offer an opportunity to examine
carefully the quality of service delivery, with an eye
toward health system reform. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Andrews, Kathryn Conner, Ruben Gatti, Roberta Sharma, Jigyasa |
| author_facet |
Andrews, Kathryn Conner, Ruben Gatti, Roberta Sharma, Jigyasa |
| author_sort |
Andrews, Kathryn |
| title |
The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_short |
The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full |
The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_fullStr |
The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Realities of Primary Care : Variation in Quality of Care Across Nine Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_sort |
realities of primary care : variation in quality of care across nine countries in sub-saharan africa |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/567791617298477787/The-Realities-of-Primary-Care-Variation-in-Quality-of-Care-Across-Nine-Countries-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35402 |
| _version_ |
1764482952950972416 |