Crossing the quality chasm in resource-limited settings

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Over the last decade, extensive scientific and policy innovations have begun to reduce the “quality chasm” - the gulf between best practices and actual implementation that exists in resource-rich medical settings. While limited data exist, this chasm is likely to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maru Duncan, Andrews Jason, Schwarz Dan, Schwarz Ryan, Acharya Bibhav, Ramaiya Astha, Karelas Gregory, Rajbhandari Ruma, Mate Kedar, Shilpakar Sona
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2012-11-01
Series:Globalization and Health
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/8/1/41
Description
Summary:<p>Abstract</p> <p>Over the last decade, extensive scientific and policy innovations have begun to reduce the “quality chasm” - the gulf between best practices and actual implementation that exists in resource-rich medical settings. While limited data exist, this chasm is likely to be equally acute and deadly in resource-limited areas. While health systems have begun to be scaled up in impoverished areas, scale-up is just the foundation necessary to deliver effective healthcare to the poor. This perspective piece describes a vision for a global quality improvement movement in resource-limited areas. The following action items are a first step toward achieving this vision: 1) revise global health investment mechanisms to value quality; 2) enhance human resources for improving health systems quality; 3) scale up data capacity; 4) deepen community accountability and engagement initiatives; 5) implement evidence-based quality improvement programs; 6) develop an implementation science research agenda.</p>
ISSN:1744-8603