Quality of antenatal care services at subcentres: an infrastructure, process and outcome evaluation in a district in Tamil Nadu

Authors

  • Sugunadevi G. Department of Community Medicine, Karpagam Faculty of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20174647

Keywords:

Quality of service, Antenatal care, Health subcentre

Abstract

Background: Quality of care is a priority concern all over the world and all the countries are trying to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their health care delivery systems. Recognizing the potential to improve the reproductive health status in developing countries, quality of care in reproductive health field has been the priority area of research by WHO.

Methods: This study assesses the quality of antenatal care services delivered at subcentre level by comparing with the recommended Structural attributes, Process attributes and Initial outcome attributes. By simple random sampling, ten subcentres under three Block Primary Health Centres in Coimbatore district were included in the study.

Results: On observing the quality of client-provider interaction, most of the women were treated with dignity (98.5%), but there were deficiencies in examination for pallor (19.2%), pedal edema (18.5%) and pulse (10.6%) which is very critical for good antenatal care. The exit interview revealed that most clients (98.6%) were satisfied with the antenatal care.

Conclusions: The findings of this quality assessment study provide information about training needs for improving the quality of service and serves as a baseline data on status before implementing NRHM. 

References

AGA Khan Health Services, USA Assessing the quality of service, Primary health care management advancement programme, User’s guide. Aga Khan Foundation, Module 6. 1993.

Improve the quality of maternal health services (WHD 98.8).

WHO. Available at: www.who.int/archives/whday/ en/whday1998.html. Accessed on 5 August 2017.

Helminen S. Quality of care provided for young adults and adolescents in Finnish public oral health service. 2000.

Ministry of health and family welfare. Manual on Target free approach in family welfare programme, New Delhi. 1996.

Roemer MI, Aguilar MC. Quality assessment and assurance in Primary Health Care. World Health Organisation, Geneva. 1998.

Khan ME, Patel BC, Gupta RB. The Quality of Family planning services in Uttar Pradesh from the perspective of service providers. Khan ME, (ed.) Improving Quality of care in India’s Family Welfare Programme, The challenge ahead. Population council. 1999: 238-272.

Agarwal M, Idris MZ, Mohan U. Quality of reproductive health at primary care level. Indian J Community Med. 2001;26(3):119-26.

Brawley M. The client perspective: What is quality health care service? A Literature Review. Delivery of Improved Services For Health: USAID Cooperative Agreement 617-00-00-00001-00. 2000.

Jain S, Singh JV, Bhatnagar M, Garg SK, Chopra H, Bajpal SK. Evaluation of physical facilities available at subcentres in district Meerut. Indian J Community Med. 1999;24(1):27-9.

WHO. Normal pregnancy. Available at: www.who.int/reproductive-health. Accessed on 9 August 2017.

Indian Council of Medical Research. Evaluation of Quality of Family Welfare services at Primary Health Center level, An ICMR task force study. New Delhi. 1991.

International Institute for population sciences, Mumbai (1998-99). National family health survey India, Tamil Nadu.

Lal S, Kapoor S, Vashisht BMS, Punia MS. Coverage and quality of maternal and child health services at subcentre level. Indian J Community Med. 2001;26(1):16-20.

Rawal A. Trends in Maternal mortality and some policy concerns. Indian J Community Med. 2003;28(1):43-6.

Banerjee B. A qualitative analysis of Maternal and Child Health services of an Urban Health Center, by assessing client perspective in terms of awareness, satisfaction and service utilization. Indian J Community Med. 2003;28(4):153–6.

Downloads

Published

2017-10-25

How to Cite

G., S. (2017). Quality of antenatal care services at subcentres: an infrastructure, process and outcome evaluation in a district in Tamil Nadu. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 4(11), 4071–4077. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20174647

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles