Quality of care in family planning: a catalog of assessment and improvement tools.

This catalog of tools addresses quality of care indicators assessment tools and improvement tools and covers continuous assessment continuous quality improvement COPE (client-oriented and provider-efficient) and service quality improvement.

Abstract

Family Health International has published this catalog of tools as a resource for family planning program managers and providers who want to evaluate and improve the quality of care in their programs especially those in developing countries. The catalog addresses quality of care indicators assessment tools and improvement tools. Methodologies used to evaluate and monitor different elements of quality of care are assessment tools. Some of the many assessment tools and methods covered are client satisfaction studies counselor training evaluation focus group discussions program quality assessment tool patient/client flow analysis and SWOT (strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats) analysis. Improvement tools are used to delineate the process by which service delivery problems are identified and an improvement plan is formulated and implemented. The catalog covers continuous assessment continuous quality improvement COPE (client-oriented and provider-efficient) and service quality improvement. It provides a summary of 4 sets of quality of care indicators. It also includes a descriptive summary for each tool its advantages and disadvantages examples of how groups have used the tool and references for all examples. It also provides elements of quality of care the tool can measure for the assessment tools. The catalog concludes with a bibliography of all source material and an address of the organizations who developed the tools covered in the catalog or who contributed other work to the catalog.