Targeted to aid ministries of health, key partners and stakeholders to carry out an evaluation of the quality of care provided at hospital level, to identify key areas that need to be improved, and to develop specific action plans.

This tool is targeted to aid ministries of health, key partners and stakeholders to carry out an evaluation of the quality of care provided at hospital level, to identify key areas that need to be improved, and to develop specific action plans. When the tool is used for country-wide assessment, an adequate sample of hospitals should be assessed to represent all levels of care, regional differences and managerial features (public, private-no-profit and private-for-profit). This sample will provide results that can be generalized to the whole network and/or to specific subgroups of health facilities. For assessing quality of care at outpatient level, the WHO Assessment tool for the quality of outpatient antepartum and postpartum care for women and newborns can be used to complement the hospital tool. The tool can also be used in a single facility for internal audit purposes. It adopts a participatory approach that facilitates wide involvement and sustained improvement of practice.

This tool is organized into five sections, which are: assessment of hospital support services (i.e. physical structures, staffing, basic services, etc.); case management (i.e. normal labour and vaginal delivery, care for caesarean section, management of maternal complications, etc.); policies and organization of services (i.e. infection prevention, guidelines, training and audit, etc.); interviews (staff and mother/ family); and compiling/analysing the findings of the assessment and delivery feedback to facilitate the creation of an action plan.