Improving health-care quality in resource-poor settings

Abstract

Improvements in health-care quality can contribute to healthier populations. However, many global and national health strategies are not sufficiently considering the issues of measuring and improving health-care quality in low-resource settings.1 The barriers to delivering high-quality care are often similar across different health systems. However, the extent and mechanisms through which these barriers affect quality improvement interventions may be different in resource-poor settings.2 Investments in health systems strengthening without continuous quality improvement is thought to be a useless effort.3 Conversely, only focusing on quality improvement in a resource-poor context without engaging the broader health system for support is of limited value. Hence, both areas must be improved simultaneously.