Development of a brief instrument for assessing healthcare employee satisfaction in a low-income setting.

Background: Ethiopia is one of 57 countries identified by the World Health Report 2006 as having a severely limited number of health care professionals. In recognition of this shortage, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health, through the Ethiopian Hospital Management Initiative, prioritized the need to improve retention of health care workers. Accordingly, we sought to develop the Satisfaction of Employees in Health Care (SEHC) survey for use in hospitals and health centers throughout Ethiopia.

Patient experiences with inpatient care in rural China.

Objective: To describe patient experiences with hospital inpatient care among participants living in rural China and to examine their associations with sociodemographic characteristics, hospital type and province.

Design: Cross-sectional study using data from questionnaires administered to members of randomly selected households in 2010. We used linear and logistic regression to determine associations between patient ratings of care and key components of their experience and between patient ratings of care and sociodemographic characteristics, hospital type and province.

Incorporating the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist into practice at two hospitals in Liberia.

Background: The impact of the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Programme's 19-item Surgical Safety Checklist on surgical processes and outcomes was assessed in 2008-2009 at two hospitals in the resource-limited setting of Liberia.

Methods: In the preintervention phase, data were prospectively collected on surgical processes and outcomes from 232 consecutively enrolled patients who were undergoing surgery. In the postintervention phase, data were collected on 249 consecutively enrolled patients after the introduction of the Surgical Safety Checklist.

Community perspectives on roles and responsibilities for strengthening primary health care in rural Ethiopia.

Government-community partnerships are central to developing effective, sustainable models of primary health care in low-income countries; however, evidence about the nature of partnerships lacks the perspective of community members. Our objective was to characterise community perspectives regarding the respective roles and responsibilities of government and the community in efforts to strengthen primary health care in low-income settings. We conducted a qualitative study using focus groups (n=14 groups in each of seven primary health care units in Amhara and Oromia, Ethiopia, with a total of 140 participants) in the context of the Ethiopian Millennium Rural Initiative.

A systems approach to improving rural care in Ethiopia.

Background: Multiple interventions have been launched to improve the quality, access, and utilization of primary health care in rural, low-income settings; however, the success of these interventions varies substantially, even within single studies where the measured impact of interventions differs across sites, centers, and regions. Accordingly, we sought to examine the variation in impact of a health systems strengthening intervention and understand factors that might explain the variation in impact across primary health care units.

Methodology/principal Findings: We conducted a mixed methods positive deviance study of 20 Primary Health Care Units (PHCUs) in rural Ethiopia.

Access and quality of rural healthcare: Ethiopian Millennium Rural Initiative.

Objective: More than half the world's population lives in rural areas; however, we have limited evidence about how to strengthen rural healthcare services. We sought to determine the impact of a systems-based approach to improving rural care, the Ethiopian Millennium Rural Initiative, on key healthcare services indicators.

Design: We conducted an 18-month longitudinal mixed methods study of the 10 primary healthcare units (PHCUs) serving ~400,000 people, using monthly indicator tracking and focus groups.