Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement
The national deployment of polyvalent community health workers (CHWs) is a constitutive part of the strategy initiated by the Ministry of Health to accelerate efforts towards universal health coverage in Haiti. Its implementation requires the planning of future recruitment and deployment activities...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-01-01
|
Series: | PLOS Global Public Health |
Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022239/?tool=EBI |
_version_ | 1797700989812211712 |
---|---|
author | Clara Champagne Andrew Sunil Rajkumar Paul Auxila Giulia Perrone Marvin Plötz Alyssa Young Samuel Bazaz Jazayeri Harriet G. Napier Arnaud Le Menach Katherine Battle Punam Amratia Ewan Cameron Jean-Patrick Alfred Yves-Gaston Deslouches Emilie Pothin |
author_facet | Clara Champagne Andrew Sunil Rajkumar Paul Auxila Giulia Perrone Marvin Plötz Alyssa Young Samuel Bazaz Jazayeri Harriet G. Napier Arnaud Le Menach Katherine Battle Punam Amratia Ewan Cameron Jean-Patrick Alfred Yves-Gaston Deslouches Emilie Pothin |
author_sort | Clara Champagne |
collection | DOAJ |
description | The national deployment of polyvalent community health workers (CHWs) is a constitutive part of the strategy initiated by the Ministry of Health to accelerate efforts towards universal health coverage in Haiti. Its implementation requires the planning of future recruitment and deployment activities for which mathematical modelling tools can provide useful support by exploring optimised placement scenarios based on access to care and population distribution. We combined existing gridded estimates of population and travel times with optimisation methods to derive theoretical CHW geographical placement scenarios including constraints on walking time and the number of people served per CHW. Four national-scale scenarios that align with total numbers of existing CHWs and that ensure that the walking time for each CHW does not exceed a predefined threshold are compared. The first scenario accounts for population distribution in rural and urban areas only, while the other three also incorporate in different ways the proximity of existing health centres. Comparing these scenarios to the current distribution, insufficient number of CHWs is systematically identified in several departments and gaps in access to health care are identified within all departments. These results highlight current suboptimal distribution of CHWs and emphasize the need to consider an optimal (re-)allocation. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:29:51Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-7f77b76b668b434ab15d8a46dc990077 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2767-3375 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:29:51Z |
publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
record_format | Article |
series | PLOS Global Public Health |
spelling | doaj.art-7f77b76b668b434ab15d8a46dc9900772023-09-03T10:09:08ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLOS Global Public Health2767-33752022-01-0125Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placementClara ChampagneAndrew Sunil RajkumarPaul AuxilaGiulia PerroneMarvin PlötzAlyssa YoungSamuel Bazaz JazayeriHarriet G. NapierArnaud Le MenachKatherine BattlePunam AmratiaEwan CameronJean-Patrick AlfredYves-Gaston DeslouchesEmilie PothinThe national deployment of polyvalent community health workers (CHWs) is a constitutive part of the strategy initiated by the Ministry of Health to accelerate efforts towards universal health coverage in Haiti. Its implementation requires the planning of future recruitment and deployment activities for which mathematical modelling tools can provide useful support by exploring optimised placement scenarios based on access to care and population distribution. We combined existing gridded estimates of population and travel times with optimisation methods to derive theoretical CHW geographical placement scenarios including constraints on walking time and the number of people served per CHW. Four national-scale scenarios that align with total numbers of existing CHWs and that ensure that the walking time for each CHW does not exceed a predefined threshold are compared. The first scenario accounts for population distribution in rural and urban areas only, while the other three also incorporate in different ways the proximity of existing health centres. Comparing these scenarios to the current distribution, insufficient number of CHWs is systematically identified in several departments and gaps in access to health care are identified within all departments. These results highlight current suboptimal distribution of CHWs and emphasize the need to consider an optimal (re-)allocation.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022239/?tool=EBI |
spellingShingle | Clara Champagne Andrew Sunil Rajkumar Paul Auxila Giulia Perrone Marvin Plötz Alyssa Young Samuel Bazaz Jazayeri Harriet G. Napier Arnaud Le Menach Katherine Battle Punam Amratia Ewan Cameron Jean-Patrick Alfred Yves-Gaston Deslouches Emilie Pothin Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement PLOS Global Public Health |
title | Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
title_full | Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
title_fullStr | Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
title_full_unstemmed | Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
title_short | Improving access to care and community health in Haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
title_sort | improving access to care and community health in haiti with optimized community health worker placement |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022239/?tool=EBI |
work_keys_str_mv | AT clarachampagne improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT andrewsunilrajkumar improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT paulauxila improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT giuliaperrone improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT marvinplotz improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT alyssayoung improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT samuelbazazjazayeri improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT harrietgnapier improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT arnaudlemenach improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT katherinebattle improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT punamamratia improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT ewancameron improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT jeanpatrickalfred improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT yvesgastondeslouches improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement AT emiliepothin improvingaccesstocareandcommunityhealthinhaitiwithoptimizedcommunityhealthworkerplacement |