Improving quality of care for family planning services in Uganda

The Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care at Makerere University, Uganda in collaboration with the Delivery of Improved Services for Health II Project, the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Population Council’s FRONTIERS Program, conducted an operations research project to help the MOH improve the quality of family planning services with the aim of helping couples better attain their reproductive goals. The study developed a package of interventions (the Yellow Star Programme—YSP) that sought to increase the readiness of clinics to offer basic family planning services, to improve provider motivation, and to empower clients to request quality services. The interventions did somewhat increase the functioning of basic family planning services and created an immediate effect on quality of care in the clinics, with an increasing number of clinics attaining most of the basic quality standards set by the YSP. However, there was only a moderately significant difference between the experimental and comparison groups during the post-intervention survey, suggesting a limited effect of the study. In conclusion, the study provided empirical evidence that quality of care can be improved by a combination of interventions targeting system, provider, and client levels. In addition, introducing non-monetary incentives can improve provider motivation