QuIC approach is quick indeed

Benson John explores why QuIC (Quality of Institutional Care), a telephone-based approach assessing the readiness of facilities to provide quality Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care services, is quick indeed.

QuIC (Quality of Institutional Care) collects, analyses and presents data quickly, so results are available for immediate action.  

QuIC is founded on the premise that it is low resource and a fast approach to collecting data and turning around data into results which are relevant to stakeholders at facility, district and national level.

But what makes QuIC quick?

I think this is an absorbing question you have been struggling with by now. Nevertheless, the solution to your question is at hand. QuIC is quick because data directly from facilities is collected through a telephone, via a maximum 20 minute call with data entered directly onto an android mobile phone or tablet application (the QuIC Facility Readiness Application). As such it is low burden on data collectors and on facility staff.

Besides that, results are auto-generated on the QuIC Facility Readiness Application so ‘state of readiness’ and ‘signal function’ scores are immediately available for feedback to health facility staff; results stored on the telephone and on the cloud for easy access.

In addition, using easy-to-create scorecards, results are presented to highlight issues or trends in quality at a health facility, or to compare health facilities across a district.

Therefore, data are presented in easy-to-interpret formats which can facilitate fast, informed ACTION to improve quality of care. QuIC has been designed to collect data on a facility’s readiness to provide EmONC services (Enablers) and ability to perform EmONC Signal Functions.

Practical Examples on QuIC

Now I have clarified what QuIC is and what makes QuIC quick. I am persuaded to talk about what transpired a month ago during first round of QuIC data collection. QuIC quickly fixed a three bucket system for decontamination problem in Ntchisi and the issue of nearly expiring drugs in Mangochi.

In Ntchisi it was discovered that they had no three bucket decontamination system because the buckets had not been distributed by management.  Management was approached and this was solved immediately.

On the other hand in Mangochi it was discovered that one of the facilities had drugs which were going to expire soon. Mangochi pharmacy department liaised with a pharmacy assistant of that facility and management on how to share and replace drugs. Hence wastage of drugs was avoided.

It can therefore not be denied that…

QuIC is one of the fastest ways of measuring quality of service delivery and hence can be used to complement other methods of measuring quality which are a bit complicated, expensive or involve large-scale, resource intensive surveys which are slow to provide results. 

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