The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In a first-of-its-kind survey by the health ministry (MoH) to find out the effectiveness and reliability of diagnostic facilities and clinical laboratories, two district hospitals of Trashiyangtse and Dagapela topped with 95% ratings.
While in the case of referral hospitals, the Thimphu national referral hospital (JDWNRH) scored top ranks with 93%. Regional referral hospitals followed next with Gelephu Regional Hospital (84%) and Mongar Regional Referral Hospital (82%) respectively.
Bajo hospital in Wangduephodrang and Gidakom hospital under Thimphu Dzongkhag demonstrated low performances compared to rest of the laboratories in the country.
While among the 15 BHU-Is in the country, B ali BHU I of Haa Dzongkhag topped the list with 84% and Lhamoizingkha BHU under Dagana dzongkhag with 82% was second in the list. They were followed by 81% in Sarpang and Sibsoo BHU respectively.
The lowest scorers were Nganglam BHU under Pemagatshel and Samdrupcholing BHU compared to rest of the BHU laboratories whereas Gyelposhing BHU-I was not evaluated for not having laboratory technicians to perform lab activities.
The Service Performance Assessment (SPA) was carried out by the MoH in Clinical Laboratory for the year 2012 in Bhutan to raise the quality of health facilities in the country. These assessment results reveal best performers among three different categories of health facilities in Bhutan.
The assessment was carried out using a standard set of checklist and comparisons were made among three types of health facilities from Basic Health Units (BHU) to District hospitals and Regional hospitals to National Referral Hospitals.
The results of such studies set very good grounds for the ministry to actually see how reliable were the results of diagnostic services like clinical laboratory and which health facilities and services needed support.
Assessments were conducted in 40 Health Centers for 40 laboratories.
The MoH news release stated that the evaluation result is aimed at ranking and certifying the best performing laboratories and identifying strategies to support the low performers.
The main objectives behind such initiatives are to cultivate a culture of quality amongst the Laboratory personnel and to identify, encourage, and motivate best performing laboratories. At the same time it would be useful to support the low performers, to evaluate the services, identify quality gaps and to provide timely feedbacks for corrective measures and to develop a set of standard procedures and to benchmark the services.
Certificates of appreciation are being awarded to above health facilities signed by the Health Minister Lyonpo Zanglay Dukpa as recognition for their work.
Similar interventions would be introduced in other service areas and a comprehensive assessment for the facility as a whole would also be carried out in the coming years.
“Developing a sense of completion among the health facilities would foster a change in the way services are delivered by the health professionals and encourage health facilities to improve their quality of services, hence, achieving patient and provider satisfaction,” stated the MoH release.
