Using data to improve health care at Rambura Health Center

Rambura Health Center was facing challenges related to suboptimal resource utilization and accumulating pharmacy-related debts. Unfortunately, these challenges were getting in the way of providing life-saving health care for community members in Nyabihu, Western province.

Through mentorship with Health Builders, Rambura Health Center created a new system for identifying and troubleshooting these challenges using data.

Using a “situation room,” Rambura Health Center was able to monitor, display, and make decisions based on the data that is evaluated on a monthly basis by the data manager, quality improvement committee and the health center manager.

 HMA Mentoring QI team in a “situation room”

Thanks to this new system, Rambura Health Center was able to pay all outstanding pharmacy debts and improve efficiencies both operationally and for patient care.

Operational Efficiencies:

• Decreased overall payables from 4,943,521 RWF to 0 RWF

• Reduced number of rejected insurance claims by 19%

• Shortened the submission of operational bills from 60 days to 15 days

• Eliminated frequent medication stock-outs

Patient Care Enhancements:

• Increased the number of ultrasound providers by 75%

• Increased the number of ultrasound scans by 51% in 3 months

• Increased the number of deliveries at health center by 136%

• Improved staff welfare at work by providing catered lunch for staff on day shifts

• Improved patient welfare by providing catered food for maternity and antenatal care sessions

This new initiative not only addressed immediate challenges like medication shortages and delays, but also set the foundation for long-term improvements in patient care and staff motivation. Using data for decision-making is a key to health center success and improvement in rural Rwanda.