NATIONAL LEVEL
To improve health outcomes, national-level leadership, ownership and action are required to guide, support and sustain such improvements. The precise roles and/or actors responsible for each activity varies in accordance with country context. In general, those involved include the ministry of health team responsible for coordinating national quality improvement and patient safety efforts, senior health system and political leaders, relevant steering committees or technical working groups, and other key quality-related bodies active at the country level.
In many settings, national work on quality is also supported by a range of international partner organizations. It is important that national authorities consider how such partners can add value, and that international partners focus resources in alignment with the national efforts to avoid fragmentation and/or ‘verticalization’.
The guide helps national stakeholders to understand both the key activities required at the national level and how they can support delivery of quality health services across all levels of health system.
Summary of actions:
- Establish national commitment to improve quality
- Develop national strategic direction on quality
- Select and prioritize a set of quality interventions
- Develop a pragmatic quality measurement framework
- Develop operational and resourcing plan with key stakeholders
To support implementation of key activities at the national-level, you are encouraged to review the WHO Quality Toolkit
