Health System Strengthening
While we provide service and learn from our work, we are certain that for healthcare to reach the most marginalized, and even the middle-class Indians across this vast nation, it is possible mainly through a strengthened public health system. It is towards this end that JSS started a quality improvement initiative with the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2016. Spanning eight districts, our focus has been to bring about improved maternal and newborn care through training, assuring supplies, getting the Quality Improvement process to be embedded in the functioning of hospitals (District hospitals and First Referral Units), mentoring and supportive supervision. Changes have been slow to come, but are now seen definitively and we are looking at ways to make them sustainable. Much of this work has been accepted by the state government to be essential and hence significant components are now budgeted in the State Program Implementation Plan.
JSS has been a technical partner at these facilities and has been offering its technical expertise in the areas of quality improvement of maternal and newborn health care; overall quality improvement of public health centers in Anuppur District of Madhya Pradesh; running rural crèches; screening, prevention and management of sickle cell disease; and tailored trainings for ANMs & medical officers broadly.
Govt. Health Facilities
Project iGUNATMAC (Quality Improvement in Maternal and Newborn Healthcare services) was started in 2016 in 16 public health facilities (district hospitals and CHCs) of 6 selected districts in Madhya Pradesh and two in Chhattisgarh. The objectives of this project are to build and enhance capacity of facility teams to apply quality standards through a process of training, mentoring and supportive supervision; to strengthen systems and processes in selected public health facilities so as to achieve quality standards set out in the GOI’s Quality Assurance guidelines; to improve accountability mechanisms in the facilities; to enable action to strengthen the continuum of care from community to facility; and to undertake advocacy to scale up initiatives for quality assurance in non-intervention facilities in both states. More….
Govt. Community Health Programs
Anuppur is one of the peripheral districts of MP, bordering Chhattisgarh and a lot of the sickest patients coming to JSS arrive from here. According to the 2011 census, 47.9 percent of the population belongs to the Scheduled Tribes category. It has 4 blocks. Pushprajgarh is the largest Block with 268 villages. Estimated population in 2018 was 2.3 lakhs, with 96.3 percent rural population. It mostly has a tribal population, with very limited means of income. It is divided into 8 sectors in terms of health administration. Karpa and Tithi-Jaithari Sectors are most backward in terms of road, water, electricity, and communication. Health facilities and outcomes are extremely poor in these two sectors. Number of home deliveries are very high. Both these sectors also have high infant and maternal mortality (many of these deaths are not even recorded). More…