Service-specific readiness score for health facilities

Definition:

Cumulative availability of components required in health facilities to deliver specific services, expressed as percentage. The overall score for a specific service is the unweighted average of number of items present and functioning, expressed as a percentage of the total number of items in that service.

Numerator:

Number of facilities that offer and meet tracer criteria for specific services:

• Family planning services
• Antenatal care services
• Basic emergency obstetric and newborn care 
• Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmO)
• Child health services (routine child immunization) 
• Child health services (curative care and preventive services including growth monitoring)
• HIV counseling and testing
• HIV/AIDS care and support services
• HIV/AIDS antiretroviral prescription and client management
• Preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services
• Tuberculosis services
• Malaria services (if relevant)
• Chronic Diseases adult treatment and preventive services
• Minor surgery services

Denominator:

Total number of health facilities and total number of facilities offering specific services.

Disaggregation:

Facility type, managing authority.

Scores for the different domains of general service readiness should be presented separately. All scores can be presented by district and by ownership of facilities.

Hospitals provide a wide range of services and an expanded version of the questionnaire should be administered during facility assessment, or regular reporting.

Data Requirements:

Data collected using a standardized questionnaire to assess the availability and functioning of the tracer items in each service provided. These data can be used to calculate scores for each domain.

See also: Percent of facilities prepared to provide the essential services; Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA)

Data Sources:

Health facility assessments (using a standardized questionnaire to assess the availability and functioning of the tracer items in each service provided).

Purpose:

Service-specific readiness refers to the capacity of health facilities to provide a specific service, measured through the presence of tracer items that include trained staff, guidelines, equipment/supplies, diagnostic capacity, medicines and commodities.The main challenge is to develop a concise set of items for each domain so that all programmes can be monitored through a single data collection mechanism. Recommended tracer items to monitor readiness to deliver specific services are presented in (WHO 2010; Table 1.A.2). http://www.who.int/healthinfo/systems/WHO_MBHSS_2010_full_web.pdf

Issue(s):

Definitions and data collection should be standardized.

References:

World Health Organization (WHO). Monitoring the Building Blocks of Health Systems: A Handbook of Indicators and Their Measurement Strategies.; 2010.

Further information and related links

Framework of actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development beyond 2014. Report of the Secretary-General. New York (NY): United Nations; 2014 (Retrieved from https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/ICPD/Framework%20of%20action%20for%20the%20follow-up%20to%20the%20PoA%20of%20the%20ICPD.pdf ).

Monitoring the building blocks of health systems: a handbook of indicators and their measurement strategies. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010 (Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthinfo/systems/WHO_MBHSS_2010_full_web.pdf?ua=1) 

PEPFAR. Next Generation Indicators Reference Guide - Planning and Reporting. Version 1.2. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Feb. 2013.( Retrieved from http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/81097.pdf).