PHAs doing ISC assessment to benefit from IMPACT health project

The East New Britain [ENB], Central, East Sepik and Simbu Provincial Health Authorities can benefit from the IMPACT health project if their Integrated Facility Supervision Checklist [ISC] Assessment is completed and uploaded to Tupaia Dashboard before June 30th with essential requirements.

They can be eligible for USD$ 250,000 [K700,000] if the data submitted meets the project indicator target in this reporting round.

With a few more weeks to go, the survey coverage of Levels 2-4 health facilities in mentioned PHAs remains critical as they are preparing to ramp up supervision visits and ensure all checklist data is uploaded.

The ISC Levels 2-4 Checklist is a Papua New Guinea National Department of Health's supportive supervision tool aimed at training and equipping PHAs to provide routine supervision at primary health care facilities [public and church-run] to improve service delivery quality.

The routine implementation of the ISC will lead to increased transparency and accountability on the delivery of care by facility and identify/address challenges and bottlenecks to improve minimum standards of care at the frontlines – primary health care facilities.

The ISC Checklist will consist of various topics focused on the critical areas for quality control including planning and management, human resources, outreach, support and supervision, health information, drugs and essential management, maternal and child health services, communicable diseases prevention and control, inpatient care clinical governance, and infection prevention and control.

By June 30, ENB PHA as an Early Adopter Province target is to assess 92.4% of its L2-4 health facilities, with a Minimum Service Quality Score of at least 20% over the baseline.

The Central, East Sepik and Simbu PHAs as expansion provinces are expected to achieve a Minimum Service Quality Score on the ISC by at least 10% over their baseline. All PHAs are expected to assess over 90% of their L2-4 reporting health facilities and achieve a Minimum Service Quality Score of over 60%.

According to Tupaia data, East Sepik PHA has assessed over 55% of its L2-4 health facilities, Central PHA over 29% of its L2-4 facilities, Simbu PHA over 27% and ENB 22% of its facilities to date.

Meanwhile, during each ISC visit, information is collected through interviews, observations and checking of relevant records/registers/documents at Community Health Posts [Level 2], Rural and Urban Health Centers [Level 3], District Hospitals [Level 4].

Measurement indicators aspire to reflect the health inputs, services and quality standards criteria as recommended by the National Health Services Standards [NHSS].

The NHSS requires that a health facility provides a specific package of Promotion, Preventative and Referral Health Services and there are adequate essential supplies and good planning, management, information and supervision arrangements.

The checklist is a working document that can be reviewed and refined over time. The checklist is being digitized and data is accessible online among other digital health tools which are currently being finalized.