Tanzanian healthcare professionals discuss benchmark results

Mwanza, Tanzania, 4-5 February 2010

Over 30 Tanzanian healthcare professionals, amongst them doctors and managers from 9 district hospitals, Bishop Ndege from the Lake Diocese, representatives from the Ministry of Health and consultants from CSSC and Tragpi, gathered in Mwanza to discuss benchmarking in hospitals.

The healthcare professionals talked about important Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and selected 12 KPI’s to be discussed on a monthly basis by the management teams of the participating hospitals. Furthermore, each of the hospitals presented their measures taken to address indicators such as: average length of stay, occupancy rate and number of surgeries per room per day. On the quality side, the group agreed to monitor the number of malaria cases adequately tested.

This was the second meeting organized by CSSC, Cordaid and Tragpi in the context of the benchmark project. Again, as in the previous year, attendance was 100 percent. All hospitals that were invited were present. The participants emphasized the importance of this project for the development of healthcare in the Lake Zone. Without these initiatives the hospital management teams stand alone in solving their problems. With these meetings a platform is established to discuss specific hospital management challenges and solutions among Tanzanian and international healthcare experts.

The partnership project between CSSC (an umbrella organization of Tanzanian hospitals), Cordaid and Tragpi has been running for 2,5 years. Up to now 14 local and international consultants have visited the 9 Lake Zone hospitals on average 4 times (a total of around 35 on site visits). Two conferences have been organized to share know-how among healthcare experts. Locally the project is managed by Mecklina Isasi from CSSC. The project is funded by Tragpi and voluntary contributions from Tragpi clients.