Health Facility Networking for Maternal Health

NCT ID: NCT01802957

Last Updated: 2015-01-28

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

10787 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2013-03-31

Study Completion Date

2014-12-31

Brief Summary

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This study will introduce a multi-faceted intervention package which will be implemented in the newly developed network of St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (St. Paul) and the surrounding seven satellite health centers. The goal is to assess if this group of interventions improve the skills and confidence of providers to handle obstetric emergencies, if they streamline the referral process and if they result in improved maternal/newborn health outcomes.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Provider Skill Provider Confidence Maternal Health Referral Systems

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NA

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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St. Paul and Networked Health Centers

An uncontrolled before and after design with baseline and follow-up cross sectional measurements will be used at the overall site level (St. Paul Hospital and the 8 associated HCs). There will be no control unit.

Group Type OTHER

Training of health workers in Basic Obstetric Emergency Care

Intervention Type OTHER

Health workers at the eight health centers will be trained in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) care, including all basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care (BEmONC) signal functions and other essential MNCH services. The training is a three week competency-based curriculum developed recently by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH).

Hospital-health center networking system

Intervention Type OTHER

A key intervention will be the creation of an effective, formalized networking system between Saint Paul Millennium Hospital and its eight satellite health centers in Addis Ababa. The networking system will create a conducive environment for the transfer of knowledge and skills between health care providers working at the hospital and in the health centers. Monthly review meetings will bring together staff from the hospital and health centers, and dedicated cell phones will be distributed to improve communication between the networked facilities.

Post Basic Emergency Obstetric Training Mentorship

Intervention Type OTHER

At Saint Paul Millennium Hospital and the health centers, providers who have undergone BEmONC training will undergo regular monthly mentorship visits for the first six months post training. The frequency of visits after six months will be adjusted based on the retention of BEmONC skills and provider performance

Team-Based Supportive supervision

Intervention Type OTHER

Saint Paul Hospital will use team-based models to provide supportive supervision to health centers in its network. Representatives of the supportive supervision teams may, in addition to Saint Paul Hospital employees, include representatives from the Addis Ababa Regional Health Bureau.

Midwives exchange program

Intervention Type OTHER

Saint Paul Millennium Hospital's maternity wards are often over-crowded and have to turn patients away. Health professionals incorrectly refer non-complicated deliveries, resulting in the occupation of beds that should be used for emergency deliveries. This action is attributed to inexperienced midwives at the health center level who are uncomfortable performing normal labor and delivery duties. In order to address this challenge, this project will establish an exchange program in which well-trained, experienced midwives from the hospitals will temporarily exchange places with less-experienced midwives in the health centers. This exchange would allow less-experienced midwives to work in the hospital environment, gaining the experience and confidence necessary to attend normal deliveries and identify appropriate referrals.

Strengthening the referral network

Intervention Type OTHER

Mechanisms and protocols for smooth communication between the health centers and the hospital have been developed, allowing health centers to utilize the hospital's ambulance, and implementing mechanisms for back referrals and feedback. To facilitate this work, we will support the use of dedicated cell phones in each of the eight networked facilities and at Saint Paul Millennium Hospital, and institute referral log books at both the referring and receiving institutions.

Facility Checklists

Intervention Type OTHER

Facility checklists will be used daily in each of the facilities to assess readiness for obstetric emergencies. Formally, the checklists will be used at the quarterly supportive supervision visits, to assess improvements over time.

Emergency Drills

Intervention Type OTHER

Non-punitive obstetric drills will provide multiple measurable indicators of quality maternal care, will illustrate opportunities for improving facility capabilities and provider care, and will allow providers to assess appropriate referral mechanisms and facility readiness. Incorporating emergency drills into current training and at all levels of health facilities will also give providers hands-on experience

Interventions

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Training of health workers in Basic Obstetric Emergency Care

Health workers at the eight health centers will be trained in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) care, including all basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care (BEmONC) signal functions and other essential MNCH services. The training is a three week competency-based curriculum developed recently by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH).

Intervention Type OTHER

Hospital-health center networking system

A key intervention will be the creation of an effective, formalized networking system between Saint Paul Millennium Hospital and its eight satellite health centers in Addis Ababa. The networking system will create a conducive environment for the transfer of knowledge and skills between health care providers working at the hospital and in the health centers. Monthly review meetings will bring together staff from the hospital and health centers, and dedicated cell phones will be distributed to improve communication between the networked facilities.

Intervention Type OTHER

Post Basic Emergency Obstetric Training Mentorship

At Saint Paul Millennium Hospital and the health centers, providers who have undergone BEmONC training will undergo regular monthly mentorship visits for the first six months post training. The frequency of visits after six months will be adjusted based on the retention of BEmONC skills and provider performance

Intervention Type OTHER

Team-Based Supportive supervision

Saint Paul Hospital will use team-based models to provide supportive supervision to health centers in its network. Representatives of the supportive supervision teams may, in addition to Saint Paul Hospital employees, include representatives from the Addis Ababa Regional Health Bureau.

Intervention Type OTHER

Midwives exchange program

Saint Paul Millennium Hospital's maternity wards are often over-crowded and have to turn patients away. Health professionals incorrectly refer non-complicated deliveries, resulting in the occupation of beds that should be used for emergency deliveries. This action is attributed to inexperienced midwives at the health center level who are uncomfortable performing normal labor and delivery duties. In order to address this challenge, this project will establish an exchange program in which well-trained, experienced midwives from the hospitals will temporarily exchange places with less-experienced midwives in the health centers. This exchange would allow less-experienced midwives to work in the hospital environment, gaining the experience and confidence necessary to attend normal deliveries and identify appropriate referrals.

Intervention Type OTHER

Strengthening the referral network

Mechanisms and protocols for smooth communication between the health centers and the hospital have been developed, allowing health centers to utilize the hospital's ambulance, and implementing mechanisms for back referrals and feedback. To facilitate this work, we will support the use of dedicated cell phones in each of the eight networked facilities and at Saint Paul Millennium Hospital, and institute referral log books at both the referring and receiving institutions.

Intervention Type OTHER

Facility Checklists

Facility checklists will be used daily in each of the facilities to assess readiness for obstetric emergencies. Formally, the checklists will be used at the quarterly supportive supervision visits, to assess improvements over time.

Intervention Type OTHER

Emergency Drills

Non-punitive obstetric drills will provide multiple measurable indicators of quality maternal care, will illustrate opportunities for improving facility capabilities and provider care, and will allow providers to assess appropriate referral mechanisms and facility readiness. Incorporating emergency drills into current training and at all levels of health facilities will also give providers hands-on experience

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

Sample population for each data collection instrument:

Baseline/Endline:

Key Informant Interviews:

* St. Paul hospital: Maternal Child Health (MCH) Head, Midwife/nurse from Labor and Delivery (L\&D), Midwife/nurse from Emergency
* Health Centers: Medical Director, Head of MCH (midwife) Midwife from L\&D, Referral focal person

Health Facility Assessment:

\- Manager/most senior health worker asked (one from each facility)

Provider Survey:

\- All providers in the MCH at both the hospital and health center level

Chart review:

\- All deliveries in all centers will be screened during the intervention phase. Data on every birth will be collected from the log books of each facility. The data collector will then find the medical record of that patient to assess the Standard of Care (SOC) during Ante-natal care (ANC)- if available from the chart, L\&D and screen for an obstetric complication. If there was a complication, the near miss data will be collected.

Telephone registration log book:

\- all phone calls between HC and Hospital

Facility Checklists:

\- Forms completed by Supportive Supervision Teams at quarterly visits

Standardized BEmONC training evaluation

\- Will be given to every provider undergoing the training, as part of the training curriculum.

Monthly mentoring evaluations - for the six months post-training mentorship, for all providers who have undergone BEmONC training.

Supportive Supervision Gap Identification Checklists

\- Collected quarterly from each of the 9 facilities
Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Maternal Health Task Force

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Ethiopia

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Addis Continental Institute of Public Health

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Ana Langer

Professor of the Practice of Public Health Coordinator of the Dean's Special Initiative in Women and Health

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Ana Langer, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

Yemane Berhane, MD, MPH, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Addis Continental Institute of Public Health

Delayehu Bekele, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Ethiopia

Fernando Althabe, MD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy

Locations

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Addis Ketema Health Center

Addis Ketema Subcity, Woreda 4, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Woreda 7 Health Center

Addis Ketema Subcity, Woreda 9, Addis Ababa,, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Semen Health Center

Arada Sub City, Addis Ababa, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Selam Health Center

Gulele Sub City, Woreda 9, Addis Ababa, , Ethiopia

Site Status

St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College

Gulele Subcity, Addis Ababa, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Shegole Health Center

Gulele Subcity, Woreda 10, Addis Ababa, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Woreda 7 Health Center

Gulele Subcity, Woreda 7, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Kolfe Health center

Kolfe Sub City, Woreda 2, Addis Ababa, , Ethiopia

Site Status

Countries

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Ethiopia

Other Identifiers

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MHTF IR Ethiopia

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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