Improving Maternal and Child Care/Health Systems in the Dominican Republic
The Maternal and Child Centers of Excellence project, recently awarded to Abt Associates by USAID, addresses a joint goal of USAID and the Dominican Republic: improve the health status and lives of the people of the country by increasing their access to quality maternal and child care — with the ultimate objective of reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortality. The project will support the Government of the Dominican Republic by focusing on critical interventions and management improvements that emphasize quality and efficiency, thereby improving equitable access to quality maternal and child health (MCH) services. The program is built on previous successful models in both MCH and health systems. It will continue to support the gradual implementation of the Family Health Insurance Program under the subsidized scheme, to guarantee financial access to health care for poor families, while strengthening the capacity of service providers to deliver efficient, high-quality, and timely care. An important focus of the project will be on integrating its two core components: MCH Service Strengthening (Component 1) and Health Systems Strengthening (Component 2). This integration is the basis of the design and development of Centers of Excellence in hospitals and Direcciones Provinciales de Salud (DPSs). The project will develop 10 Centers of Excellence in strategically selected hospitals and DPSs. These will be the vehicles for both expanding equitable access to quality MCH services and disseminating best practices throughout the country. While the main thrust of this effort is on developing Centers of Excellence, project staff will also work on:
- strengthening social participation in health promotion,
- increasing demand for vaccination,
- developing better-educated consumers, and
- promoting social oversight and control.
- Consolidate, develop, and disseminate managerial and technical best practices
- Serve as regionally based hands-on training centers to cost-efficiently and effectively improve service quality (maximizing the impact of USAID assistance)
- Deliver high-quality, well-regarded, and cost-efficient evidence-based health care
- Build critical community networks both supporting and empowered by the Centers of Excellence, to further local stewardship of the health sector
- Extend the success of two earlier USAID-funded projects, REDSALUD and CONECTA, and derive methods of measuring USAID’s impact
- Develop sustainable communication strategies and networks to generate demand for quality services, necessary behavior change, and improved community health education
- Create a replicable model for continual managerial and technical improvement, which can be scaled up nationwide in close coordination with other donor entities and projects