USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) | Georgia

URC is applying the collaborative improvement approach to improve quality, consistency, and continuity of medical care for priority high-burden adult and child diseases (cardio-vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, and pneumonia) in one demonstration region of Georgia.

The project aims to deliver  “best-buy,” high-impact medical services at each level and between different levels of the health care delivery system and support institutionalization of best practices at the national level. In addition, the project supports national level activities to streamline the health sector regulatory environment and improve access to and use of evidence-based medical information.

For more information, visit the Georgian-language page on the HCI website, which features clinical tools, job aids, and training materials developed or supported by the HCI Georgia project. The page aims to improve access to quality improvement methodology, modern evidence-based medical practices, and implementation tools for health care facility managers and providers.

• Plan and implement an improvement collaborative to improve quality of care for a priority set of high-burden adult and child diseases. Specifically:
  
• Define a feasible set of common improvement objectives;
  
• Form and support facility quality improvement (QI) teams though integrated competency-based clinical and QI trainings;
  
• Develop  provider continuous medical education training modules;
  
• Provide regular coaching of collaborative facility QI teams to reinforce clinical training, QI capacity, and effective teamwork;
  
• Choose and measure simple quality of care indicators;
  
• Test changes, track progress, analyze results, and continuously refine interventions; and
  
• Conduct regular “learning sessions” - shared learning and rapid dissemination of best practices within participating facilities in the regional collaborative.
• Promote country-wide access to evidence-based medicine through the creation of a user-friendly Med Portal and other sources
• Support collaboration with Georgian Medical Diaspora to share their QI experiences
  
• Regularly survey relevant specialty international literature and prepare/disseminate evidence-summaries through a quarterly “Journal Watch” newsletter
• Share information on QI best practices/high performing QI teams
• Support institutionalization of best QI practices and use of evidence-based medical information countrywide. Specifically:
  
• Conduct operations research to measure and inform effectiveness  and efficiency of tested approaches;
  
• Define minimum insurance benefit  package that covers “best buy”  high impact evidence-based  screening and management services for public and private insurance schemes;
  
• Promote institutionalization of performance indicators into National Health Information Systems and routine reporting forms;
  
• Promote performance-based  incentives targeting insurance companies, health care facilities and care providers;
  
• Support deliberate linking of provider continuous professional development to formal regulatory mechanisms and incentives (accreditation,  contracting  mechanisms and etc)