Assessment of pilot health project outcome indicators: West Bank/Gaza

The lack of care provided to women and newborns during the postpartum period creates a serious gap in the primary health care system of the West Bank and Gaza. While a large percentage of women receive some prenatal care very few return to health facilities for postpartum follow-up visits. As part of an effort to improve the health status of Palestinian women and their children in the West Bank and Gaza the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) and seven partners designed and funded a 28-month pilot activity that is expected to have a significant impact on the health of women and children. The goal of this Pilot Health Project (PHP) is to upgrade antenatal and postpartum services in 27 primary health care clinics in three areas of the West Bank and Gaza. The project interventions include establishing a basic package of quality antenatal and postpartum care services aimed at improving the health-giving practices of providers and health-seeking behavior of families. A single cross-sectional study was conducted by the Health Development Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) between May and August 2000 in order to determine the baseline measures for the PHP’s key outcome indicators among health care providers and clients in the PHP clinics. Information was collected on providers’ technical knowledge and reported clinical practices as well as clients’ knowledge and practices related to antenatal care postpartum visits care of the newborn family planning breast-self examination and Pap smear tests. Alpha International for Research Polling and Informatics took responsibility for conducting the post-test survey. Data collection for the post-test took place in the West Bank and Gaza between October and December 2001. The sample for the women’s post-test survey was 1070. The objective of the post-test survey was to evaluate the impact of the interventions introduced by comparing changes between the pre-test and post-test survey on the PHP key outcome indicators. The post-test survey utilized the same cross-sectional study design and data collection methods that the pre-test survey employed. This report presents the findings of this survey. (excerpt)