Quality in action in Morocco

This document deals with the quality of care and services in the health care system in Morocco. The objective of the document is to unify the collection of information gathered about diverse quality-improvement experimentation and to ensure that potential users will access examples of problems linked to quality-improvement. Indeed the project Integral Quality Management (Gestion Integrante de la Qualite GIQua) part of the Family Planning Maternal and Childrens Health Program launched in 1996 has as its objectives the orientation information and preparation of the staff to implement quality-management in the Health Ministry. In 1999 the National Program of Quality Assurance has been drafted to identify the specific functions of quality assurance. This program describes 3 distinct approaches to improve the quality of health care: feedback on performances for the staff quality improvement through a team effort towards problems solving and the design of quality. The experience of several health practitioners from different health care centers and Moroccan hospitals concerning tools and techniques used to improve the quality of health care is presented in studies that have been conducted in five regions of the country. The topics of these studies are: the amelioration of the process of bearing the medical costs for pregnant women the increase of female contraception the improvement in the follow-up of tetanus vaccinations and the participation of the population in quality improvement of services according to their needs. Problems have been identified for each study and have been analyzed by the team which drew up a set of possible responses in order to improve quality assurance.