Digitalisation and Primary Care Quality Improvement

Location: Kyrgyzstan  |  Funded by: GIZ

Key objectives:

• Strengthen quality health service delivery in primary healthcare: operationalization of existing directives for implementing the new PHC model with a special focus on the quality of PHC services for MNCH and SRH.
• Improve competencies of staff at PHC level: the development of PHC staff competencies is targeted towards two main aspects: capacity building of staff to take on elements of the new PHC model of care that puts the patient in the focus (integrated patient-centred care) and to familiarise staff with the new tasks and responsibilities of the task shifting model which aims at optimising the skills mix in the PHC facilities by reorganising the scopes of practice.
• Support of digitalisation process at PHC level: though a dedicated eHealth policy document has guided the development of digital health in the last five years, the development of the digital health system remains a rather fragmented effort.

Project description: The main aim of this project is to  improve the quality of health services in the field of maternal, newborn and child healthcare (MNCH), particularly at the primary level of healthcare, in the focus regions Chui and Osh.

The new model of care should promote integrated health services by prioritising primary health care and public health functions and safeguarding sufficient coordination between them using the six models for integrating public health and PHC functions as identified by the Global Conference on PHC. PHC services should be refocused in such a way that they facilitate easier access for the target group, in this case, pregnant women and mothers with their newborns. WP 3 works on improving digital tools to be applied in this context, but it needs a systems approach. Therefore, close coordination with other layers of the health system and cooperation with other initiatives to improve the referral system is important. The new model of care is to promote constant and all-embracing person-centred, i.e. patient-centred care instead of focusing on specific diseases.