Collaborative Approaches to Regional Healthcare Improvement: Partnerships for Better Outcomes

Heba Mezeyd

Improvement of Childhood Anemia Through an Innovative Quality Improvement Collaborative Initiative in Aqaba Governate

Introduction:

The Health Care Accreditation Council (HCAC) in close collaboration with USAID-HSQA Activity launched a Quality Assurance and Patient Safety (QAPS) collaborative initiative in Aqaba Governate to reduce anemia among children aged nine months to five years.

Nearly one-third of children in the governate suffer from anemia, which is roughly the same as for Jordan overall, according to the Jordan Population and Family Health Survey 2023.

To comprehensively address this challenge and improve children's health throughout the governate, two leading hospitals and six primary healthcare centers in Aqaba from MOH, RMS, and private sector joined under the leadership of the Health Directorate Quality Council.

Using an internationally recognized quality improvement model, known as a healthcare collaborative, the health facilities will utilize shared knowledge and expertise to achieve a common goal. The IHI developed the “Collaborative” approach, termed the “Breakthrough Series”, is a short-term (6- to 15-month) learning system that brings together many teams from hospitals or health centers to seek improvement in a focused topic area to bring about rapid cycle improvement.

First Learning Session (LS 1):

Forty-six healthcare professionals from the eight health facilities attended the inaugural first learning session of the collaborative on June 12. They discussed change ideas, timelines, and performance indicators that will form the basis of a collaborative action plan to achieve incremental improvements toward the goal of measurably reducing child anemia over the coming year. The introduction of the QAPS collaborative initiative by HCAC represents a transformative effort to improve health outcomes for families across Jordan.

Second Learning Session (LS 2):

The second learning session (LS 2) also launched under patronage of his excellency the Director of the Aqaba Health Directorate, with the participation of QAPS teams from eight health facilities with 52 participants on 8-9. Sep. During this session the key achievements during the second action period were the implementation of agreed change ideas during the first learning session presented and presented the progress on child anemia indicator which reached in August 17% which total screening sample about 2000 child. All anemia cased centered on mild and moderate anemia and none of cases were severe anemia.

Each representative of the QAPS team in the participating healthcare facilities presented a 10-minute showcase including PowerPoint presentations or creative videos. The session includes two Brainstorming Sessions: one for

discussing the results of Aqaba four collaborative indicators during the past action period and voting on the effectiveness of change ideas and the second for discussing the proposed change ideas to be implemented during upcoming action period.

The Aqaba pilot will inform plans to scale the approach to other governates. Institutionalizing quality improvement practices and fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration among healthcare facilities at the governate level will improve the quality of care and the health of children, mothers, and families. The collaborative approach will help to ensure these improvements at scale, leading to a healthier, more resilient Jordanian population