Services de Santé de Qualité pour Haiti (SSQH)
Services de Santé de Qualité pour Haïti (SSQH) is a three-year, $95 million project funded by USAID/Haiti whose objectives are to improve the health of the Haitian population by increasing the quality of primary health care services, health referral networks, facility- and community-based management practices, and enhance the Government of Haiti’s (GOH) capacity to manage and monitor service delivery at the departmental level. The Paquet de Services Prioritaires Intégrés included WASH; maternal and child health, family planning, and reproductive health; HIV and AIDS; tuberculosis; gender-based violence; child protection services; critical care services; and nutrition and hygiene. The SSQH project began on October 1, 2013 and ended on September 30, 2016.
Source: http://www.pathfinder.org/our-work/projects/services-de-sant-de-qualit.html
Activity Description
The SSQH overall design was to support Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population (MSPP or Ministry of Health) and Direction Départementale de Santé (DDS) annual health plans by training of health care staff, including community-based health workers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) according to MSPP protocols and standards; procuring and providing essential equipment and supplies to facilities; recruiting qualified staff; implementing quality improvement (QI) activities; and providing logistics support to facilities. Results in the selected geographic regions in 10 departments are expected to be achieved through the delivery of a package of primary health care services, as defined within the draft MSPP Essential Package of Services. These include support for: 1) HIV and AIDS; 2) tuberculosis (TB); 3) maternal and child health (MCH), including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and nutrition; and 4) family planning (FP).
SSQH also included gender-based violence (GBV) and child protection (CP) services, as well as provision of training and limited support for critical care (accident and emergency) for selected sites within USAID-supported development corridors. SSQH support for community-based services supported the work of community health workers (CHWs) by facilitating supervision of this cadre of personnel, increasing health promotion and service provision and strengthening referral to health services. The project’s support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) affected by HIV included facility-based clinical and psychosocial service support.
In addition to supporting the provision of services, SSQH strengthened site-level governance and accountability through structured mentorship and targeted assistance to build the capacity of facility managers (private and public) to address gaps and deficiencies identified within routine data analysis and site assessments. The intention of governance and accountability interventions was to institutionalize and increase the sustainability of management systems and foster the application of quality assurance (QA) standards and continuous QI.
Expected Outcomes
- Increase the utilization of the MSPP’s integrated package of services at the primary care and community levels).
- Improve the functionality of the United States Government (USG)-supported health referral networks.
- Facilitate the sustainable delivery of quality health services through the institutionalization of key management practices at both the facility and community levels.
- Strengthen departmental health authorities’ capacity to manage and monitor service delivery.
Actual Outcomes
- SSQH trained 309 community health workers on the CommCare family planning application. Already, the app has registered and tracked more than 7,143 family planning clients, 2,982 mothers, and 2,885 children.
- 74 of the 80 project-supported sites provide family planning services (with at least three contraception methods offered).
- More than 1.7 million Haitians have accessed services at one of the 80 SSQH-supported facilities or through a project-supported community health worker
