Quality of Support Supervision in Apac District Health Facilities.

Abstract

ONUK JOSEPH CONSTANCE (2012-M191-10028) Quality of Support Supervision in Apac District Health Facilities Introduction: efforts to improve quality of health care delivery have been central to health care reforms in many countries including developed countries like the United States. However, in low developed countries like Uganda attention was put on access to key health services other than on quality of care. The Ministry of Health (MOH) -Uganda, in her document “the yellow star programme”, explained quality work as performance according to set standards taking into account the user’s perception. The objective of the study was to assess the quality of support supervision in Apac district health facilities. Methodology: this was a descriptive cross-sectional study which employed both qualitative and quantitative methods; however, it was predominantly qualitative in nature. One hundred thirty one (131) respondents were interviewed of which 123 were health workers and 8 were district health supervisors. Interviewer guided questionnaires, self-administered questionnaires and a group discussion guide were pretested and used for data collection. Qualitative data was analysed manually and quantitative data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16 and Microsoft excel. Results: Sixty six percent (66%), an equivalent to 82/123 of the respondents (health workers) had a positive perception towards support supervision in the way it was being done by the district health supervisors and their responses confirm conformity of supervision to the national support supervision guidelines while sixty eight percent (68%), an equivalent to 5/8 of the respondents (supervisors) confirmed the availability of tools/resources for support supervision. However, among 31 the challenges identified include: poor roads, lack of cooperation among supervisors, few supervisors and limited source of funds. Conclusion: support supervision is healthier machinery to up-grade and strengthen health workers‟ performance into a required standard. Health workers need support supervision to work harder no matter their level of experience and devotion. Although there are quite a good number of challenges embedded in the processes of supervision, it’s true that without quality support supervision, both health workers and health in-charges would backslide rapidly in their performances. Otherwise, based on the findings of this study, the quality of support supervision in the district is good. Key Words: Quality, Support Supervision, Health Facilities, Apac District.