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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
USAID Awards Quality Assurance and Workforce Development Project
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov
(202) 712-43202002-103
REVISED
September 10, 2002Contact: USAID Press Office
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a five-year, $48 million contract to University Research Co., LLC., of Bethesda, Md., to improve the quality of health care in developing countries. The Quality Assurance and Workforce Development (QAWD) project will offer specialized technical assistance for improvements in health systems, including programs focused on specific health issues, such as maternal health and infectious diseases.
"This award marks a new phase in a 10-year USAID initiative to share U.S. advances in health care quality assurance," said Dr. E. Anne Peterson, Assistant Administrator of USAID's Bureau for Global Health.
The project will support the use of established methodologies from the field of quality assurance for improving both the quality and the efficiency of health care. These methodologies address areas such as human resources management and the promotion of private sector accountability, as through hospital accreditation. The Quality Assurance and Workforce Development project offers assistance in the development of effective clinical guidelines, the re-organization of health services, and community demand for quality. The project seeks to institutionalize quality assurance programs that are accountable for the scarce resources they use and for the results which they produce.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic adds an element of urgency to developing quality assurance programs, as health systems struggle to provide far more complex and demanding services. Drug-resistant malaria and other emerging health problems present additional quality and efficiency challenges. This contract will provide health systems in developing and middle income countries with new strategies for responding to such burdens.
For more than 30 years, the U.S. has been a global leader in developing approaches for studying and improving health care. The same modern quality assurance methodologies have proved effective in the hands of typical health workers from Niger to Russia. For instance, a USAID-assisted team in Russia was able to improve the outcome of care for their most common obstetrical problem, pregnancy-induced hypertension, while reducing costs by 85%.
Results like these have convinced a growing number of policymakers to incorporate quality assurance as an integral component of health care.
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Last Updated on: December 30, 2008 |
