TOWARDS QUALITY OF CARE IN CHILD HEALTH-PROGRAMS - A CHALLENGE FOR THE PARTNERSHIP IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL-SCIENCES

Several child health care programmes, though often well conceived, are poorly implemented at held level and focus primarily on quantitative achievements to the neglect of quality of care; This paper presents a quality of care (QOC) framework for child health programmes from the p erspectives of the management system of an organization and the provid er-client interface at point of service delivery. The paper subsequent ly describes the application of qualitative and quantitative research tools drawn from the social sciences and health sciences for planning and evaluating quality of care. An integrated and complementary use of these tools is recommended. II is suggested that minimum standards, w hich are region specific, be articulated for quality maintenance in ch ild health programmes. These standards may be upgraded as quality impr oves. Finally, the challenges which a partnership of the health and so cial sciences may have to take up are discussed. These include advocac y for prioritization of QOC in child health programmes, facilitating a n environment which supports quality of care, promoting inter-discipli nary action research, training students in social science research in universities and research organizations, documenting success stories. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.