Journal Special Issue
Measuring quality of care

The United Nations sustainable development goal (SDG) 3 seeks “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all and at all ages”. To build healthcare systems that were able to progress towards the millennium development goals, many countries had to extend delivery systems to increase coverage. They also greatly improved measurement of people’s contacts with the health system.

However, with the reduction in disease burden due to specific infectious diseases and childhood illnesses, people tend to live longer, have multiple noncommunicable diseases and require more complex services. The focus on measuring access is not sufficient to capture whether people receive effective care..

This theme issue will provide a glimpse of current research on quality of health-care services in low- and middle-income countries. The authors make a strong case for the need for governments to both improve health-care quality and to be able to measure the effects of such improvements.

Table of contents
  1. Measuring quality of health-care services: what is known and where are the gaps?
    Margaret E Kruk, Edward Kelley, Shamsuzzoha B Syed, Finn Tarp, Tony Addison, Yoko Akachi
  2. Improving the quality of hospital care for children by supportive supervision: a cluster randomized trial, Kyrgyzstan
    Marzia Lazzerini, Venera Shukurova, Marina Davletbaeva, Kubanychbek Monolbaev, Tatiana Kulichenko, Yuri Akoev, Maya Bakradze, Tea Margieva, Ilya Mityushino, Leyla Namazova-Baranova, Elnura Boronbayeva, Aigul Kuttumuratova, Martin Willy Weber, Giorgio Tamburlini
    Working Paper
    | Improving the quality of hospital care for children by supportive supervision
  3. Variation in quality of primary-care services in Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania
    Margaret E Kruk, Adanna Chukwuma, Godfrey Mbaruku, Hannah H Leslie
    Working Paper
    | Variation in quality of primary-care services in Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania
  4. Quality of routine essential care during childbirth: clinical observations of uncomplicated births in Uttar Pradesh, India
    Gaurav Sharma, Timothy Powell-Jackson, Kaveri Haldar, John Bradley, Véronique Filippi
    Working Paper
    | Quality of routine essential care during childbirth
  5. Records of medical malpractice litigation: a potential indicator of health-care quality in China
    Zhan Wang, Niying Li, Mengsi Jiang, Keith Dear, Chee-Ruey Hsieh
    Working Paper
    | Records of medical malpractice litigation
  6. A geospatial evaluation of timely access to surgical care in seven countries
    Lisa M Knowlton, Paulin Banguti, Smita Chackungal, Traychit Chanthasiri, Tiffany E Chao, Bernice Dahn, Milliard Derbew, Debashish Dhar, Micaela M Esquivel, Faye Evans, Simon Hendel, Drake G LeBrun, Michelle Notrica, Iracema Saavedra-Pozo, Ross Shockley, Tarsicio Uribe-Leitz, Boualy Vannavong, Kelly A McQueen, David A Spain, Thomas G Weiser
    Working Paper
    | A geospatial evaluation of timely access to surgical care in seven countries
  7. Developing global indicators for quality of maternal and newborn care: a feasibility assessment
    Barbara Madaj, Helen Smith, Matthews Mathai, Nathalie Roos, Nynke van den Broek
    Working Paper
    | Developing global indicators for quality of maternal and newborn care
  8. Community-based approaches for neonatal survival: meta-analyses of randomized trial data
    Claudia Hanson, Sanni Kujala, Peter Waiswa, Tanya Marchant, Joanna Schellenberg
    Working Paper
    | Community-based approaches for neonatal survival
  9. Quality of care: measuring a neglected driver of improved health
    Yoko Akachi, Margaret E Kruk
    Working Paper
    | Quality of care
  10. Maternal and neonatal services in Ethiopia: measuring and improving quality
    Maureen E Canavan, Marie A Brault, Dawit Tatek, Daniel Burssa, Ayele Teshome, Erika Linnander, Elizabeth H Bradley
    Working Paper
    | Maternal and neonatal services in Ethiopia
  11. Changing the narratives for patient safety
    Peter J Pronovost, Kathleen M Sutcliffe, Lopa Basu, Mary Dixon-Woods
    Working Paper
    | Changing the narratives for patient safety
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