Promoting Awareness of the Role of the District Clinical Specialist Team in the Amathole District, South Africa: A Valuable Specialty in Improving Healthcare Access and Quality.

Introduction: This study explored the understanding of healthcare professionals on the role of the District Clinical Specialist Team (DCST) and how the team works together with the district personnel at different management levels to improve and strengthen the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme performance across four sub-districts in the Amathole district of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.

Methods: An interpretive qualitative case study was used to understand the role played by the DCST in improving PMTCT programme performance in the district. We used a purposive sampling method to select eight participants involved in providing technical assistance to support the implementation of the quality improvement programme.

PMTCT Data Management and Reporting during the Transition Phase of Implementing the Rationalised Registers in Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.

Background: The National Department of Health, in March 2015, launched the implementation of Rationalisation of Register, aimed at reducing the amount of time invested in completing the registers and collecting data. Therefore, the number of registers used in the South African healthcare facilities was reduced from 56 to 6.

Objectives: This study explored the effect of the rollout of Rationalisation of Register on the documentation and reporting of Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme data with the existing source documents during the transitional period, especially with routine data collected and reported at various health care system levels.

The association between HIV status and antenatal care attendance among pregnant women in rural hospitals in Lesotho.

Objective: Early and frequent antenatal clinic (ANC) attendance is important for promotion of healthy outcomes for mother and child. This study explored the relationship between HIV status at the first ANC visit and subsequent ANC attendance among pregnant women in Lesotho.

Methods: A retrospective review of ANC records from a cohort of pregnant women attending their first ANC visit in December 2009 to May 2010 in 3 rural hospitals was conducted.