August 15, 2022 | Anthony Okoth
There have been significant gains made in the fight against HIV over the years. However, the gap between these achievements and ending the HIV epidemic remains very wide. The fast-track approach is an agenda for quickening the pace of implementation, focus, and change when it comes to HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression. The key elements of this are the UNAIDS-driven 90–90–90 targets set for 2020 which have been scaled up to achieve 95-95-95 targets by 2030. These targets refer to the percentages of people living with HIV who know their HIV status, the proportion who know their status receiving treatment, and people on HIV treatment who have a suppressed viral load so their immune system remains strong and the likelihood of their infection being passed on is greatly reduced, respectively.
Adopting Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) processes is an approach for accelerating progress towards attainment of the 95-95-95 global HIV targets. The University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) CIHEB-Tanzania held a CQI indicators workshop in Tabora led by their trainers. At the workshop, which was tailored for a local partner, Management and Development for Health (MDH), the trainers took the MDH technical team through the CQI training. Previously MDH staff in Dar es Salaam, Geita, and Kagera regions had received similar training.
The CQI methodology UMB works with local partners to implement involves four main steps: plan, do, study, act. It encourages all health care team members to continuously ask: “How are we doing?” and “Can we do it better?” CQI can be considered an integral part of performance management, as it encompasses the long-term evaluation of programs to ensure that they meet goals.
Knowledge on CQI indicators helps program staff to review performance, perform course correction, try new strategies, and improve the quality of HIV service delivery in health facilities. Through consistent use of CQI, organizations and healthcare workers can monitor innovations and programmes for effectiveness. This results in stopping what does not work and scaling up what has proven to work. By checking each step taken, healthcare workers can ensure that services are people-centered and meet international standards. These all result in reduced burden on strained health systems and extension of the reach of quality HIV and TB services offered to Tanzanians.
The CQI indicators training aims to orient the implementing partners in understanding the PEPFAR monthly CQI indicators used for performance monitoring.
Contact
Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity
Institute of Human Virology
Anthony Okoth
Regional Communications Specialist
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