Title: Healthcare innovation and its impact on Quality of Services in Pakistan

Abstract:

The players in Healthcare System of Pakistan comprises public, private, formal, non-formal, traditional, modern with traditional, faith based and NGOs. The health seeking behavior depends on factors like cost, access, gender, trust, literacy and perceived quality. Quality Healthcare has remained questionable even with the qualified healthcare providers, especially in case of, reproductive health and ambulatory services. Private medical sector in Pakistan is currently providing 35% of total ambulatory out of pocket services; yet, quality is well below standards. Social franchising has emerged as an increasingly popular method of private sector healthcare service delivery across the developing countries. Social Franchise is a partnership system with private local healthcare providers to increase awareness, demand, access, choices and quality healthcare services to under-served poor communities. A research was conducted to see the impact of this network on provision of medical, emergency & reproductive health services in 20 remote areas of Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur)  and Punjab (Multan) where either the services were limited or non-existent. A sample 120 private healthcare providers was selected from both urban and rural Pakistan. Pretest, intervention and post-test method was used to compare a trained control group of service providers with un-trained one. The performance was assessed on two indicators i.e. knowledge and counseling skills as per the standard checklists. It revealed that training had markable improvement of 32% in both the skills of service providers. Client feedback revealed improvement in quality of healthcare services in terms of service delivery which was easy, affordable, safe, timely, friendly, and with dignity. Thus the training and social franchise set-up had positive impact on the quality of health services to the target population with improved ambulatory services and reduced mortality & morbidity ratios in reproductive health in Pakistan.

Biography:

Hifsa Altaf is a public health professional with over 14 years of experience providing expertise in family planning and reproductive, maternal and community health. Hifsa has international field experience, primarily in Asian countries, working with leading reproductive health & family planning organization “Marie Stopes Society (MSS) Pakistan”. As a General Manager she leads the quality component of the MSS Pakistan program along with supporting programs in London and other Asian countries. Hifsa has been a speaker at numerous international health forums such as the Urban Health Conference in San Francisco, USA and has been acknowledged for her contributions by organizations such as the WHO and Pakistan Nursing Council.