Piloting a Streamlined Index for Assessment of Quality of Labor and Delivery Care in Tanzania – Findings and Recommendations

Publish Date: June 2015
Author: MCHIP, MCSP
Language: English

There is a need for streamlined observation-based tools to measure labor and delivery (L&D) care quality. Using data from the MCHIP Maternal and Newborn Quality of Care Surveys (QoC Surveys), a research study recently developed a short but comprehensive index of 20 informative indicators that can be used to measure the quality of routine L&D care by facility-based or external supervision teams.

This index includes many important evidence-based actions during L&D care and covers most dimensions of QoC identified by a Delphi process. Statistical analysis using data from the MCHIP QoC Surveys shows that as a delivery’s score on this index increases, the proportion of the full range of important actions during L&D that were completed also rises. In other words, this comprehensive index appears to be a good proxy for overall QoC.