Quality of Health Care in the Lao People's Democratic Republic
Peabody, John; Tran, Mary; Paculdo, David; Sato, Azusa; Ramesh, Kirthi | July 2019
Abstract
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has ambitious and laudable goals for universal health coverage, with a view to increasing health outcomes especially for the most vulnerable in society. It has set up the National Health Insurance Bureau, which covers nearly the entire population, through which out-of-pocket payments have been reduced and access to health care facilities has increased, including utilization. However, the attention given to the quality of care is still less than optimal. Further, while the Lao PDR has existing guidelines and policies for quality, its measurement capacity is still nascent. In particular, work on clinical quality of care is just beginning. This paper outlines the different dimensions of quality (structural, process, outcome), and reports results from data collected from six facilities in Luang Prabang on clinical quality, using vignettes. Findings show that the Lao PDR tends to focus on structural elements of care, such as staffing levels and infrastructure, rather than process measures, which are linked experimentally to better outcomes. Vignettes is a feasible tool to measure quality of care in the Lao PDR, but its methodology needs to be better understood by policy makers. The paper links with current proposed Asian Development Bank projects in the Lao PDR on quality of health care and complementary technical assistance projects.
Citation
Peabody, John; Tran, Mary; Paculdo, David; Sato, Azusa; Ramesh, Kirthi. 2019. Quality of Health Care in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/10839.Keywords
Results-Based Monitoring And Evaluation
Project Evaluation & Review Technique
Project Evaluation
Program Evaluation
Performance Evaluation
Operations Evaluation
Evaluation Methods
Evaluation
Basic Health
Family Welfare
Family Planning
Nutrition Programs
Child Nutrition
Health Costs
Aged Health
Medical Services
Medical Insurance
Health Costs
Medical Care
Dentistry
Child Health Services
Project impact
Development projects
Program management
Performance appraisal
Project appraisal
Technology assessment
Nutrition and Health Care
Maternal and Child Health
Partnerships in Health Reform
Health Surveys
Health Statistics
Health Standards
Health Policy Research
Health Policy
Child Health Services
Cumulative effects assessment
Grievance procedures
Participatory monitoring and evaluation
Public health records
Health status indicators
State and nutrition
Food policy
Nutrition policy
Child study
School hygiene
Nursing homes
Long-term care facilities
Hospices
Cost of medical care
Medical and health care industry
Delivery of medical care
Child psychology
Aging
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