QUALITY HEALTH SERVICES

The planning guide focuses on actions required at the national, district and facility levels to enhance quality of health services, providing guidance on implementing key activities at each of these three levels.

This planning guide supports country efforts to improve quality in health service delivery. It helps you to conduct guided actions designed to enhance quality at the national, district and facility levels of the health system. It highlights the need for a "systems approach" to enhancing quality of care, and for a common understanding of essential activities among all relevant stakeholders. Before you get started, we recommend you briefly visit the WHO Quality of Care web page to remind yourself why quality is important in health services.

Who is the planning guide for?

The guide is for those who have a role in enhancing the quality of health services at any level of the health system. It is relevant for all stakeholders initiating and supporting action at facility, district and/or national levels, in both the public and private sectors.

Taking action to drive quality: what is required across the health system?

This planning guide outlines proposed activities at the national, district and facility levels. Improving quality typically does not have a defined start or end point, usually moving in a continuous cycle of planning, implementation and monitoring. For the purposes of this guide, however, activities within each level are divided into start-up activities and ongoing activities. A summary of actions for each level is provided.

To support implementation of the proposed actions in the planning guide, you are encouraged to review the WHO Quality Toolkit. The WHO Quality Toolkit is an organized set of practical tools and resources to support improvement in the quality of health services and is a companion to the WHO quality health services: a planning guide.