scholarly journals Best practices in the performance of District Hospitals in India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Sarwal ◽  
Vaishnavi Iyer ◽  
Shoyabahmed Kalal

NITI Aayog undertook this novel exercise on the assessment of the performance of District Hospitals across the country for the financial year 2017-18 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NABH and WHO Country Office for India. The assessment framework covers 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across the domains of Structure and Output. A total of 707 district hospitals across all States and Union Territories participated in the performance assessment. The framework classifies hospitals in three categories namely Small Hospitals (less than or equal to 200 beds), Mid-sized Hospitals (between 201-300 beds) and Large Hospitals (more than 300 beds). Three top-performing district hospitals in each of the hospital categories across the 10 KPIs were identified and their best practices collected and documented. In all, 75 district hospitals across 24 States and Union Territories emerged as top performers on indicators ranging from availability of beds, medical and paramedical staff, core health and diagnostic testing services to outputs such as bed occupancy rate and number of surgeries per surgeon etc. We believe that this country-wide assessment of district hospitals will serve as a valuable resource for them to learn best practices from each other in a spirit to improve their performance. It will also provide an opportunity to showcase progress.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ehsanur Rahamn ◽  
Shema Mhajabin ◽  
David Dockrell ◽  
Harish Nair ◽  
Shams El Arifeen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background With an estimated 24,000 deaths per year, pneumonia is the single largest cause of death among young children in Bangladesh, accounting for 18% of all under-5 deaths. The Government of Bangladesh adopted the WHO recommended Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)-strategy in 1998 for outpatient management of pneumonia, which was scaled-up nationally by 2014. This paper reports the service availability and readiness related to IMCI-based pneumonia management in Bangladesh. We conducted a secondary analysis of the Bangladesh Health Facility Survey-2017, which was conducted with a nationally representative sample including all administrative divisions and types of health facilities. We limited our analysis to District Hospitals (DHs), Maternal and Child Welfare Centres (MCWCs), Upazila (sub-district) Health Complexes (UHCs), and Union Health and Family Welfare Centres (UH&FWCs), which are mandated to provide IMCI services. Readiness was reported based on 10 items identified by national experts as ‘essential’ for pneumonia management. Results More than 90% of DHs and UHCs, and three-fourths of UH&FWCs and MCWCs provide IMCI-based pneumonia management services. Less than two-third of the staff had ever received IMCI-based pneumonia training. Only one-third of the facilities had a functional ARI timer or a watch able to record seconds on the day of the visit. Pulse oximetry was available in 27% of the district hospitals, 18% of the UHCs and none of the UH&FWCs. Although more than 80% of the facilities had amoxicillin syrup or dispersible tablets, only 16% had injectable gentamicin. IMCI service registers were not available in nearly one-third of the facilities and monthly reporting forms were not available in around 10% of the facilities. Only 18% of facilities had a high-readiness (score 8–10), whereas 20% had a low-readiness (score 0–4). The readiness was significantly poorer among rural and lower level facilities (p < 0.001). Seventy-two percent of the UHCs had availability of one of any of the four oxygen sources (oxygen concentrators, filled oxygen cylinder with flowmeter, filled oxygen cylinder without flowmeter, and oxygen distribution system) followed by DHs (66%) and MCWCs (59%). Conclusion There are substantial gaps in the readiness related to IMCI-based pneumonia management in public health facilities in Bangladesh. Since pneumonia remains a major cause of child death nationally, Bangladesh should make a substantial effort in programme planning, implementation and monitoring to address these critical gaps to ensure better provision of essential care for children suffering from pneumonia.


Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Jones ◽  
Zishan K. Siddiqui ◽  
Charles Callahan ◽  
Surbhi Leekha ◽  
Sharon Smyth ◽  
...  

Abstract The state of Maryland identified its first case of COVID-19 on March 5, 2020. The Baltimore Convention Center (BCCFH) quickly became a selected location to set up a 250-bed inpatient Field Hospital and Alternate Care Site. In contrast to other field hospitals throughout the United States, the BCCFH remained open throughout the pandemic and took on additional COVID-19 missions, including community SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing, monoclonal antibody infusions for COVID-19 outpatients, and community COVID-19 vaccinations. At the time of publication, the BCCFH had cared for 1,478 COVID-19 inpatients, performed 108,155 COVID-19 tests, infused 2,166 COVID-19 patients, and administered 115,169 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. To prevent the spread of pathogens during operations, infection prevention and control guidelines were essential to ensure the safety of staff and patients. Through multi-agency collaboration, utilization of infection prevention best practices, and answering what we describe as “PPE-ESP”, an operational framework was established to reduce infection risks for those providing or receiving care at the BCCFH during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Author(s):  
Pau Morales Fusco ◽  
Sergi Saurí Marchán ◽  
Anna Maria Lekka ◽  
Iosif Karousos

The seamless flow of goods, people and investments across the Mediterranean necessitates a well-functioning port and transport system. More efficient port operations enhance seamless logistics and promote safety, efficiency, interoperability and interconnectivity of transport networks in the Mediterranean area.To promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise relevant to port and customs procedures and simplification of clearance for vessels and cargoes in the Mediterranean, the MEDNET project was launched. As part of the project a common evaluation framework for the performance of ports in the form of a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) together with a list of the best practices in terms of operations and customs procedures was developed.In total, 50 ports were analyzed and given a KPI regarding traffic, financial, operational and human resources, sustainability and customs procedures. The values were latter crossed with the current good practices on operation in terms of customs procedures. And a small correlation between KPIs performance and implantation degree of good practices in customs procedures was found. This presentation exposes the methodology to assess the ports’ performance and the best practices identification.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.4221


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Youkee ◽  
Thaimu Bangura ◽  
Kwame O’Neill ◽  
Lucy Hartshorn ◽  
Sorie Samura

Abstract Background Referral systems are critical to a well-functioning health system. In 2017, a special cadre of referral coordinators were trained and deployed at every district and tertiary hospital in Sierra Leone. We analyse the referrals coordinated by the network to understand health service utilisation, referral pathways and outcomes.Methods A retrospective observational study of incoming referrals to all district and tertiary hospitals in Sierra Leone from 1st November 2017 until 31st October 2018. Multivariate analysis was performed on all referrals and a subgroup analysis of urgent referrals (n=10,865). Hospital preparedness and readiness scores were sourced from the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment 2017.Results 14,266 referrals were captured over the 12 months. Referral indices ranged from 0·51-5·97, with the highest indices found in Freetown and Pujehun. Bed occupancy ranged from 36·8-83·3%. 606 deaths were recorded, mortality rate per referral was 4.25%, with the majority of deaths, 446 (73.60%) occurring in the U5 population. Higher OR for mortality are seen from referrals originating from higher levels of the health system. The OR for mortality for a referral from the lowest level, MCHP, was 0.77, whilst from tertiary level was 2.40 (MCHP 0·77, CHP 0·90, CHC 1·40, district 2·06 and tertiary 2·40). For urgent referrals, factors associated with mortality were U5s, adult non-maternity cases and being seen by a clinician within one hour. Referrals from district hospitals to tertiary hospitals only accounted for 0·5% of all referrals. No correlation was found between referral index, bed occupancy and hospital service availability and readiness scores. The study did not detect any difference in total number of national referrals during the rainy season.Conclusions Wide variations in bed occupancy and referrals by district highlight disparities in health service utilisation. Low rates of referral from district hospitals to tertiary care should be further investigated. Referral indices and referral mortality rates are useful to monitor over time and to make inter district comparisons. Referral systems and pathways are useful indicators of health service utilisation and further research should be undertaken to standardise definitions and identify performance indicators for referral systems in low resource settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3660
Author(s):  
Aliyu Aliyu ◽  
Leandros Maglaras ◽  
Ying He ◽  
Iryna Yevseyeva ◽  
Eerke Boiten ◽  
...  

As organisations are vulnerable to cyberattacks, their protection becomes a significant issue. Capability Maturity Models can enable organisations to benchmark current maturity levels against best practices. Although many maturity models have been already proposed in the literature, a need for models that integrate several regulations exists. This article presents a light, web-based model that can be used as a cybersecurity assessment tool for Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) of the United Kingdom. The novel Holistic Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment Framework incorporates all security regulations, privacy regulations, and best practices that HEIs must be compliant to, and can be used as a self assessment or a cybersecurity audit tool.


Author(s):  
Joe Don Sanders

This paper will discuss how to use Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) results to justify and manage a Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) program that can be validated by using key performance indicators. A step-by step methodology to provide guidance on how to recognize, develop, and implement a CUI remediation program will be shared based on experience from 19 plant sites. Recommendations, based on actual plant experience, are included to facilitate the sharing of best practices and prevention of common errors.


Author(s):  
Shanton Chang ◽  
Martina von Imhoff ◽  
Rikke Ilona Ustrup

Students in the Engineering and Information Technology (IT) field are statistically less mobile than in many other disciplines. This has been documented across Australia, Europe and North America. While studies have shown the benefits of going abroad for a period of time, these messages seem to be lost on many Engineering and IT students. Using comparative case studies between/among various Universities, this chapter outlines and explores the challenges of trying to encourage more of such students to go abroad. Challenges include: (1) student concerns; (2) degree structure and program limitations; and (3) faculty buy-in. This chapter outlines three cases where strategic and operational actions have been taken to mitigate identified challenges. Best practices include the identification and introduction of ‘mobility windows' in curricula in cooperation with faculty, having a clear management framework and performance indicators and achieving faculty buy-in.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Temitope Olubunmi Awodiji

With large amounts of unstructured data being produced every day, organizations are trying to extract as much relevant information as possible. This massive quantity of data is collected from a variety of sources, and data analysts and data scientists use it to create a dashboard that provides a complete picture of the organization's performance. Dashboards are business intelligence (BI) reporting tools that collect and show key metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) on a single screen, enabling users to monitor and analyse business performance at a glance. An objective assessment of the company's overall performance, as well as of each department, is provided. If each department has access to the dashboard, it may serve as a springboard for future discussion and good decision-making. The goal of this article is to explain in detail the implementation of Dashboard and how it works, which will serve as a blueprint for building an effective dashboard with respect to best practices for dashboard design.


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